Interim Results
Interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2023
- Loss for the period of £1.0 million (H1 2022: loss of £10.6 million), mainly driven by the unrealised loss on the value of the Group's holding in Launchmycareer Holdings plc ("LMC") (formerly Veati ve Holdings Plc) over the period. This reflected a fall in LMC carrying value as assessed by the Board from 2.77p at 30 September 2022 to 2p per share at 31 March 2023
- Net assets of £5.4 million (30 September 2022: £6.5 million), in part reflecting the unrealised loss on the LMC investment of £0.5 million
- Net asset value (NAV) per share of 4.67p (30 September 2022: 5.53p)
- Board focussed on further cost savings
- Cancellation of trading of the Company's shares on AIM effective 26 May 2023
Introduction
The Group is invested in the technology and soft ware sectors and continues to focus primarily on supporting its current investments.
The specific areas we are invested in are education technology (ed-tech), e-sports, OTT broadcast TV streaming, music streaming, podcasting and cyber security.
Asimilar continues to support and actively work with each of its investee companies to maximise shareholder value and build quality businesses. Our portfolio consists of 3 listed and 7 private companies. We believe that there is significant upside to be delivered and we are closely working with the boards of certain of our investee companies to assist them in realising their potential.
Summary of investment portfolio
The Board has not made any new investments in the period. Our investment portfolio consists of businesses with strong technology and content themes. Each of the businesses are pioneers and innovators in their sectors and are disrupting the space that they are in, which also comes with high risk, especially in times of economic difficulti es.
Magic Media Works Ltd (“Magic Media”)
Magic Media is a music entertainment technology business. The company's mission is to bring families together throughshared music entertainment experiences, making every home a connected home.
The free ROXi TV App, which was launched in November 2021, offers a full catalogue of 90 million music videos covering all genres and decades, combining all the original music videos with tens of millions of virtual music videos which are exclusive to ROXi. ROXi also offers interactive music games and Karaoke and a Netflix-esque rail-based user interface.
The ROXi experience is available on an increasingly large number of Smart TV platforms, including Sky Q, Fire TV, Google TV, Android TV and Samsung. Other platforms and territories are planned.
The company has global rights agreements with the major labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner MusicGroup) and major independents including Merlin Music.
On 19 December 2022 ROXi announced a partnership with Simon Cowell, creator of X-Factor and Britain's Got Talent, to curate exclusive music and video content available on the ROXi App.
In December 2022, ROXi also announced a partnership with Samsung, allowing ROXi to be enjoyed on Samsung TVs.
Launchmycareer Holdings Plc ("LMC"), formerly Dev Clever Holdings Plc ("Dev Clever"):
Launchmycareer Holdings Plc, together with its wholly owned subsidiary Launchmycareer Limited, is a soft ware and technology group based in Tamworth, United Kingdom, specialising in the use of lightweight integrations of cloud-based gamification and VR technologies to deliver rich customer engagement experiences across both the commercial and education sectors.
On 16 December 2022 LMC announced its intention to delist from the Standard List of the London Stock Exchange and delisted on 18 January 2023. As part of the delisting plans the company also announced a rebranding to Veative Holdings Plc, a restructuring of the board, a fundraise and an intention to re-list as soon as possible.
As at 31 March 2023 no further updates were issued. Filings at Companies House show that the company received funds from the issue of new shares at various prices from 15p to 1p per share. These are believed to be the exercise of warrants by existing shareholders.
On 9 May 2023 there were further board changes and another rebranding from Veative Holdings Plc to Launchmycareer Holdings Plc. The fundraising process continues but no updates have been issued.
Simplestream Limited (“Simplestream”)
Simplestream is an award winning provider of best in class, next generation TV solutions to some of the biggest players in the broadcast, sports and media industry. Clients include A&E Networks, AMC Networks, Channel 4, Nova TV Sony Traceplay, QVC TV, Box Nation, TVL Norway, PBS UK, Copa 90 and Talk TV, GB News and UK TV amongst others.
Simplestream's cloud-based Media Manager platform provides broadcasters and rights owners with an end-to-end technology services eco-system, with a full range of multi-platform TV and video distribution products including low latency online simulcasts of TV channels, real-time sports highlights clipping, broadcaster catch-up services, social video syndication and subscriber management services.
Simplestream's technology platform also provides multi -channel and multi -territory front-end templated applications for a complete range of connected devices including mobiles, tablets, connected TVs and fast-growing over the top (OTT) platforms such as Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku. In the UK Simplestream's "Hybrid TV" solution is used by leading broadcasters to power "catchup" services on Freeview, Freesat, YouView and EETV.
Simplestream delivers services across Europe, the US, Africa and the Far East.
Sparkledun Limited (“Sparkeldun”)
Sparkledun is a private company which, through its trading subsidiary, Fast to Fibre Limited ("Fast to Fibre"), has rights to exploit a patented process for the extraction of the inner core of telecoms and power cables, allowing the insertion of fibre optic without the need for excavation or other disruptive techniques.
The Fast to Fibre commercial propositi on is to reduce the cost of fibre optic deployment particularly in difficult to access areas such as urban and city centres, thereby increasing the pace of adoption in line with government targets around the world to provide ultra-fast internet access.
The company has completed a number of trials in UK, Europe, North America and India and is negotiating initial contracts with leading Telcos.
Zeelo Limited (“Zeelo”)
Zeelo's ambition is to build the world's leading smart mobility platform for organisations, enabling access to safe and sustainable transportation for everyday journeys. It seeks to use technology and data to provide flexible and cost efficient transportation programmes in public transit deserts. This includes the smart provision and procurement of shared transport for businesses and providing employees with a safer commute to work and in education getting students to schools and colleges safely and competitively. It also gives transport operators access to new business via a digitised service.
After an abortive acquisition offer at $100m the company subsequently completed a fundraise of £5m at a valuation of £50m.
At 31 March 2023, Asimilar held 1,220,000 in Zeelo, which represents 0.95% of its issued share capital, with a carrying value of £439,298 (30 September 2022: £439,298) reflecting the valuation as per the last fundraise.
All Active Asset Capital ("AAA"):
Asimilar has a holding in All Active Asset Capital ("AAA") of 24 million shares (representing approximately 0.01% of its issued share capital). On 11 April 2023 AAA announced that it is unable to value its 36% holding in Aaqua BV due to various legal actions involving that company, its principal shareholder Robert Bonnier and Candy Ventures SARL.
AAA also announced that its director Colin McQuade had been appointed to the board of Sentinace NV. AAA owns 25% of Sentiance N.V., a Belgium based AI company, which has shown strong month on month growth. AAA is working with Sentiance to improve its financial strength.
Asimilar's holding in AAA has been valued based solely on its 25% holding in Sentiance.
The investment in AAA is held at £240,000 as at 31 March 2023 (30 September 2022 - £240,000). The Board has assessed that there is no material change in the value and will review this carrying value at the time of publishing its annual accounts for 2023.
Audioboom Group plc (“Audioboom”):
Audioboom is a global leader in podcasti ng with more than 130 million downloads each month from 34 million unique listeners around the world. Audioboom is now ranked as the fifth largest podcast publisher by weekly users in the US by Triton Digital.
Audioboom's ad-tech and monetisation platform underpins a scalable content business that provides commercial services for a premium network of 250 top tier podcasts.
For the year to 31 December 2022 Audioboom achieved revenue of US$74.90 million, up 24% on 2021 and adjusted EBITDA of US$ 3.6 million, up 15% from 2021.
Low 6 Limited ("Low6")
Low6 has developed an app for "pool betting" gameplay designed for Millennials to compete against each other rather than traditionally pitted against 'the House'. Distribution is through multi-channel platform technology. Gameplay is available via 'global network' or 'ring-fenced geo-specific' tenants and/or locations.
Gfinity plc (“Gfinity”)
Gfinity is a world-leading esports solutions provider. It focuses on designing, developing and delivering esports solutions fore-games publishers, rights holders and brands. It has contracts and partnership arrangements with EA Games, Microsoft ,FIFA, Formula 1 and Indycar.
The company announced losses of £0.8m for the 6 months to 31 December 2022 and launched a restructuring with the aim of achieving recurring savings of £0.7m and profitability in the near future.
SeeQuestor Limited (“SeeQuestor”):
SeeQuestor brings together leaders in cyber security and computer vision to deliver an Artificial Intelligence ("AI") tool to comb through some of the estimated 1.5 trillion hours of CCTV footage produced per year, harnessing world leading AI technology and affordable supercomputing to turn terabytes of video into actionable intelligence.
SeeQuestor has two main products available: SeeQuestor 'Post-Event' which allows teams to comb through archives of video footage to find persons of interest or vehicles, helping to solve investigations in a fraction of the time that would otherwise be needed; and SeeQuestor 'iCCTV' which monitors surveillance cameras in real-time. Use cases range from homeland security to smart cities, airports, industrial and mining operations.
The SeeQuestor 'Post-Event' product has been used successfully to solve crimes by 20 police forces in the UK and overseas. SeeQuestor 'iCCTV' is now being deployed at scale to secure sensitive events and sites in several countries.
Due to difficult trading conditions and need for further investment on 24 December 2022 the company accepted an offer from Gorilla Technology Group Inc for the sale of the assets and IP of the company for cash and a conditional payment to the shareholders in January 2024 if certain earn out conditions are achieved by end of December 2023.
If the earn out conditions were to be met then Asimilar and AIL between them could receive around $270,000 of shares in the acquiring company, however the board of Asimilar does not have a high degree of confidence that these earn outconditions will be met.
The holding of SeeQuestor shares totalled 124,586 as at 31 March 2023, representing 9.00% of the issued share capital of SeeQuestor, and the carrying value of the investment was nil (30 September 2022: nil).
As the Company is not currently actively pursuing any new investment opportunities and will consider an orderly realisation of the Company's portfolio, Station 12 Asset Management Limited will cease to act as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager from 1 July 2023.
John Taylor
Chairman
29 June 2023
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 March 2023
| Unaudited | Unaudited | Audited | ||
| six months ended | six months ended | year ended | ||
| 31 March 2023 | 31 March 2022 | 30 September 2022 | ||
| Notes | £ | £ | £ | |
| Revenue | 7,000 | 7,000 | 14,000 | |
| Administrative expenses | (258,131) | (323,811) | (735,906) | |
| Gain on sale of investments | 10,244 | 99,485 | 226,976 | |
| Gain from remeasurement of derivative financial liabilities | 7 | - | 684,500 | 1,853,215 |
| Unrealised loss on remeasurement to fair value on investments in financial assets | 3 | (771,685) | (11,044,357) | (36,630,063) |
| LOSS FROM OPERATIONS BEFORE FINANCING ACTIVITIES | (1,012,572) | (10,577,183) | (35,271,778) | |
| Finance income | 42 | - | 46 | |
| Finance cost | (38) | - | - | |
| LOSS BEFORE TAX | (1,012,568) | (10,577,183) | (35,271,732) | |
| Tax | - | - | - | |
| LOSS FOR THE PERIOD | (1,012,568) | (10,577,183) | (35,271,732) | |
| TOTAL COMPREHENSIVE EXPENSE FOR THE PERIOD | (1,012,568) | (10,577,183) | (35,271,732) |
Loss before tax and total comprehensive expense for the period are all attributable to the equity shareholders of the parent.
Loss per share (pence per share) | |||
Basic | (0.80) | (8.69) | (28.85) |
Diluted | (0.80) | (8.69) | (28.85) |
Income and profit from operations for the current period all derive from continuing operations.
INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION
FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
| Unaudited | Audited | ||
| 31 March | 30 September | ||
| 2023 | 2022 | ||
| Notes | £ | £ | |
| ASSETS | |||
| Non-current assets | |||
| Investments in financial assets held at fair value | 3 | 4,734,639 | 5,761,864 |
| 4,734,639 | 5,761,864 | ||
| Current assets | |||
| Investments in financial assets held at fair value | 3 | 814,313 | 804,541 |
| Trade and other receivables | 4 | 106,242 | 153,750 |
| Cash and cash equivalents | 5 | 32,870 | 7,179 |
| 953,425 | 965,470 | ||
| TOTAL ASSETS | 5,688,064 | 6,727,334 | |
| EQUITY AND LIABILITIES | |||
| Equity | |||
| Share capital | 8 | 5,215,190 | 5,215,190 |
| Share premium account | 18,339,562 | 18,339,562 | |
| Merger reserve | 279,900 | 279,900 | |
| Retained earnings | (18,395,036) | (17,382,468) | |
| Total equity attributable to equity holders of the parent | |||
| 5,439,616 | 6,452,184 | ||
| Current liabilities | |||
| Trade and other payables | 6 | 192,448 | 219,150 |
| Derivative financial liabilities | 7 | 56,000 | 56,000 |
| Total liabilities | 248,448 | 275,150 | |
| TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES | 5,688,064 | 6,727,334 |
INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN EQUITY
FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
| Share | ||||||
| Share | Premium | Merger | Warrant | Retained | ||
| capital | Account | Reserve | Reserve | Earnings | Total | |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | ||
| Audited as at 1 October 2021 | 5,214,709 | 17,932,954 | 279,900 | 157,813 | 17,889,264 | 41,474,640 |
| Total comprehensive expense for the period | - | - | - | - | (10,577,182) | (10,577,182) |
| Transactions with owners | ||||||
| Share issue | 57 | 28,609 | - | - | - | 28,667 |
| Unaudited as at 31 March 2022 | 5,214,766 | 17,961,563 | 279,900 | 157,813 | 7,312,082 | 30,926,124 |
| Unaudited as at 1 April 2022 | 5,214,766 | 17,961,563 | 279,900 | 157,813 | 7,312,082 | 30,926,124 |
| Total comprehensive expense for the period | - | - | - | - | (24,694,550) | (24,694,550) |
| Warrant reserve | - | 157,813 | - | (157,813) | - | - |
| Transactions with owners | ||||||
| Share issue | 424 | 220,186 | - | - | - | 220,610 |
| Audited as at 30 September 2022 | 5,215,190 | 18,339,562 | 279,900 | - | (17,382,468) | 6,452,184 |
| Audited as at 1 October 2022 | 5,215,190 | 18,339,562 | 279,900 | - | (17,382,468) | 6,452,184 |
| Total comprehensive expense for the period | - | - | - | - | (1,012,568) | (1,012,568) |
| Unaudited as at 31 March 2023 | 5,215,190 | 18,339,562 | 279,900 | - | (18,395,036) | 5,439,616 |
All equity is attributable to equity shareholders of the parent.
Share Capital
Represents the par value of shares in issue.
Share premium
Represents amounts subscribed for share capital in excess of its nominal value, net of directly attributable issue costs.
Merger relief reserve
Represents premium on shares issued in connection with the acquisition of Intrinsic Investments Limited, recognised in accordance with S162 of the Companies Act 2006.
Warrant reserve
Warrant reserve represents amount received for placing warrants.
Retained earnings
Represents accumulated losses to date.
INTERIM CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 31 MARCH 2023
| Unaudited | Unaudited | Audited | ||
| six months ended | six months ended | year ended | ||
| 31 March 2023 | 31 March 2022 | 30 September 2022 | ||
| £ | £ | £ | ||
| Operating activities | ||||
| Loss before tax | (1,012,568) | (10,577,182) | (35,271,732) | |
| (Increase)/decrease in trade and other receivables | 47,508 | (65,619) | (58,269) | |
| Increase/(decrease) in trade and other payables | (26,702) | 11,956 | 87,515 | |
| Net finance cost | (4) | - | (46) | |
| Unrealised loss on remeasurement to fair value | 771,685 | 10,359,857 | 34,776,848 | |
| Gain on sale of investments | (10,244) | (99,485) | (226,976) | |
| Net cash used in operating activities | (230,325) | (370,473) | (692,660) | |
| Investing activities | ||||
| Payments to acquire investments | - | (395,316) | (644,230) | |
| Proceeds from disposal of financial assets | 256,012 | 168,737 | 714,843 | |
| Net finance income | 4 | - | 46 | |
| Net cash (used in)/generated from investing activities | 256,016 | (226,579) | 70,659 | |
| Financing activities | ||||
| Net proceeds from issue of shares | - | 28,667 | 29,090 | |
| Net cash received from financing activities | - | 28,667 | 29,090 | |
| Net (decrease) / increase in cash and cash equivalents | 25,691 | (568,385) | (592,911) | |
| Cash and cash equivalents at the start of the period | 7,179 | 600,090 | 600,090 | |
| Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period | 32,870 | 31,705 | 7,179 | |
Notes
The notes are available in the PDF download.Page last up-dated: 30 June 2023