TVC confident on sales plans

VENTURE capital specialist TVC Holdings – which yesterday announced a return to profitability – remains confident of selling off its non-core investments and realising its aim of building a portfolio of “four core platform investments”.

The company, formerly known as Trinity Venture Capital, yesterday reported pre-tax profits of €28.3 million for the year to the end of March; a significant reverse from a loss of €66.2m for the preceding year.

However, although the company had hoped to radically change its investment portfolio over the past year, the challenging state of the mergers and acquisitions market meant it was unable to do so.

TVC’s main investments are a 27% stake in Norkom Technologies and an 18% shareholding in UTV Media. Those two investments represent 86% of TVC’s investment value.

The long-term strategy is to add two more high profile investments and gradually dispose of its stakes in a number of private companies. It has stakes in several privately owned Irish technology firms and a 29% share of the Maldron Hotel group.

On this issue, TVC chief executive John Tracey said that all of the relevant companies remain profitable and cash generative and the stakes would probably be sold over the next two to three years.

“We have a history of selling our unquoted investments at a premium and we would expect that trend to continue,” he added.

The company added that it had come “very close” to completing two significant investment deals with unnamed Irish companies, but failed to agree terms. However, TVC has a war chest of nearly €30m to invest in companies.

“With net assets of €103.6m and cash and government bonds in excess of €28m and no debt, we believe we’re in a strong position to make additional long-term investments at what we expect to be attractive valuations, adding further value to our investment portfolio,” added TVC’s executive chairman, Shane Reihill.