Mindflair invests £0.3m in Sure Ventures

Mindflair announced a £0.3m investment to acquire 315,790 new shares in Sure Ventures (SV) on Monday, for 95p each, increasing its stake in SV to 23.8% from 20.5%.

The AIM-traded firm, formerly known as Pires Investments, said SV’s primary asset is a 25.9% shareholding in Sure Valley Ventures Fund (SVV1), in which Mindflair already held a 13% direct interest and a 5.3% indirect interest through its existing shares in SV.

SVV1, a venture capital fund focused on AI, machine learning, immersive tech, the metaverse, and cybersecurity, was currently in its realisation phase and had seen significant success with recent portfolio exits.

The announcement followed the recent sale of SVV1’s portfolio company, Landvault, to Infinite Reality for $450m, representing a 470% uplift on SVV1’s carrying value of Landvault as of December last year.

Mindflair said that was expected to significantly increase the net asset value (NAV) of SVV1, with potential additional gains if Infinite Reality completed its planned initial public offering on Nasdaq.

SV’s shares were trading at a 13% premium to its last reported net asset value of 82.5p per share as of March.

However, that net asset value did not yet reflect the expected uplift from the Landvault sale, which could boost SV’s net asset value by 60% to 70%, according to recent estimates.

As an investment trust, SV was required to distribute a substantial portion of realised investment funds to its shareholders, which could result in a significant cash inflow to Mindflair.

Mindflair said its increased shareholding in SV positioned it to benefit further from the potential short- and medium-term financial gains as SVV1 continued to realise value from its portfolio of high-growth technology companies.

“Given the potential returns that may be generated from SVV1, both from the disposal of Landvault and various of its other investments, it makes sense, at this time, for Mindflair to increase its exposure to this fund by increasing its shareholding in SV plc,” said director Nicholas Lee.

At 1402 BST, shares in Mindflair were down 4.12% at 1.13p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.