Investment firm TVC reports net assets of €109.7m

INVESTMENT COMPANY Trinity Venture Capital (TVC) yesterday reported net assets of €109.7 million at the end of September, up from €106 million in March.

This equates to net asset value per share of €1.08 compared to €1.05 six months ago.

The company posted pretax profits of €3.8 million for the first six months of the year, according to its interim results.

TVC, which has been listed on the Irish ESM and London AIM markets since 2008, made no investment during the period, though it sold its investment in OpSource, realising proceeds of €1.3 million.

The company also sold its investment in Norkom last year.

TVC executive chairman Shane Reihill told investors the company was ideally positioned in the current climate to make investments at attractive valuations.

“We believe that there will be significant restructuring opportunities in Ireland and the UK where trading companies with excessive debt will need to raise new equity at attractive terms for new investors,” he said.

The company also pointed out that the stock was currently trading at a 34 per cent discount to book value.

Operating expenses fell to €1.08 million during the period, compared to €1.24 million the previous year.

TVC had net assets of €110 million and no debt as at September 30th, 2011.

Some 88 per cent of its net asset value comprised cash and government bonds (€73 million), plus TVC’s 18 per cent quoted investment in UTV Media.

Four unquoted investments represented most of the remaining 12 per cent.

Analysts welcomed TVC’s first-half results, with Bloxham noting that the company continued “in its strategy of realising its prudently valued earlier technology investments”.

TVC closed up 3 per cent at €0.75 yesterday in Dublin.