Bloc Ventures - Termination of coverage

Edison Investment Research is terminating coverage on Mercia Asset Management (MERC), Bloc Ventures (unlisted), YOC (YOC.DE), Genuit Group (GEN), AlzeCure Pharma (ALZCUR), abrdn Latin American Income Fund (ALAI), Magforce (MF6), OPG Power Ventures (OPG) and paragon (PGN). Please note you should no longer rely on any previous research or estimates for this company. All forecasts should now be considered redundant.

Bloc Ventures - Demand for deep tech unhindered by downturn

Following the exits of Marmalade and EVRYTHNG in 2021, Bloc’s FY21 NAV/share rose 7% y-o-y to £25.30. Bloc has now delivered a FY18–21 NAV/share CAGR of 19% and a portfolio IRR of 25% since inception. In Q122, incorporating a successful Series A round for Pharrowtech, NAV/share rose a further 9% to £27.51. In FY21, Bloc strengthened its team and processes with new hires. In FY22, management is raising a Series B extension round, having postponed a larger Series C funding round until market condi

Bloc Ventures - Two tech exits and new funds being raised

Since we initiated in September, Bloc has exited two portfolio companies at a premium to holding value, Marmalade (a games developer, sold to LDC for a 4.8x cash return) and EVRYTHNG (an internet of things, IoT, data and real-time insights platform), acquired for an undisclosed price. Bloc has also made a new investment, Shield-IoT (large-scale IoT network security), taking its portfolio to 10 companies. Bloc has strengthened its team and governance with new hires and is actively raising a Serie

Bloc Ventures - Expert-led play on early-stage deep tech

Bloc Ventures is a London-based venture capital (VC) company that has built its reputation in UK and European deep tech, focusing primarily on cloud, data, connectivity and security for telecoms and computing applications. Bloc has built a portfolio of 11 investee companies, aiming for two to four new balance sheet investments a year from 2021. It delivered a 59% NAV/share gain in FY20 and is targeting a 20%+ IRR over the long term. Since we initiated in September, Bloc has exited two portfolio

Gym Group - The power of marginal gains

Gym Group has accompanied confirmation of FY23 profit resilience and continued buoyancy (like-for-like revenue up 12% in the first two months of 2024) with a clear commitment ‘to accelerate, not reinvent the wheel.’ The latter is telling with new senior management endorsing Gym Group’s sweet spot as a low-cost operator in the long-term growth market of health and fitness. Its confidence in material scope for enhanced pricing and member acquisition and retention is complemented by expansion targe

Avacta Group - AACR update

As pre-announced, Avacta has presented the results of the 3-weekly P1 Arm 1 study of its AVA6000 lead clinical asset, based on the pre|CISION™ drug development platform at the American Association for Cancer Research's annual general meeting. The update does not cover progress on the ongoing 2-weekly dosing study which is underway, and Avacta confirmed current guidance on timing including being on track to begin the dose expansion study in 2H24. There are compelling updates on the progress repor

Strong trading and investing for growth

Year-end trading update