Vela Technologies – Initiation of Coverage

Listed venture capital style investor trading at a modest discount to NAV, offering exposure to disruptive technology growth companies

Vela Technologies is an investing company focused on early stage and pre-IPO long-term disruptive technology investments. There are currently 12 investments in the portfolio which either have developed ways of utilising technology or developing technology with a view to disrupting the businesses or sector in which they operate.

  • Remit to invest in disruptive technology companies

    Vela’s investment policy gives it a wide remit to invest in disruptive technology businesses, while at the same time following some more focussed principles. Vela is looking for companies to have four key components: a strong management team; an innovative scalable product proposal; revenue enhancing or cost saving capabilities; and high growth potential.

  • Portfolio of twelve disruptive enterprises

    Vela has built an investment portfolio which currently contains holdings in 12 disruptive technology companies operating across a range of sectors. Major holdings include stakes in travel technology business Portr (trading as AirPortr), social payments (VibePay) and ticketing (VibeTickets) platforms provider Vibe Group and social e-commerce platform developer WeShop.

  • Undervalued listed companies provide further opportunities

    More recently, Vela has expanded its focus towards potential investments in listed companies, seeking to take advantage of unloved and undervalued businesses which it believes have the potential to deliver growth or are priced at a significant discount to net assets. Current listed holdings include crypto miner Argo Blockchain, big-data analytics firm Rosslyn Analytics and blockchain technology platform provider Interbit.

  • Shares trading at a modest discount to NAV while offering significant upside opportunities across the portfolio

    We calculate a current investment portfolio value of £2.057 million, with net assets of £1.72 million. Vela’s market cap of £1.46 million is therefore a 15% discount to our estimated sum-of-the-parts. While this discount is in line, if not slightly higher than, discounts seen amongst similar listed venture capital/small cap style investment entities, we see significant upside potential for investors given a number of material valuation upside opportunities across Vela’s portfolio. Speculative Buy.

  • RISK WARNING & DISCLAIMER

    Vela Technologies is a research client of Align Research. Align Research holds an interest in the shares of Vela Technologies. Full details of our Company & Personal Account Dealing Policy can be found on our website http://www.alignresearch.co.uk/legal/ 

    For full disclaimer information please refer to the last page of the full document. This investment may not be suitable for your personal circumstances. If you are in any doubt as to its suitability you should seek professional advice. This note does not constitute advice and your capital is at risk. This is a marketing communication and cannot be considered independent research.

Table: financial overview
Year to March 2016A 2017A 2018A 2019A
Revenues (£m) - - - -
Pre-tax profit/(loss) (£m) (0.072) (0.351) (0.16) (1.554)
Source: Company accounts

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