Molten Ventures (LSE:GROW) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

0:00 I'm Andrew Zimmerman, CFO of Molten Ventures. I was appointed in January 2025, having worked alongside Ben Wilkinson since joining Molten Ventures in 2023. Today, I am pleased to provide an overview of our financial results for the year. While global headlines continue to highlight macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, we remain focused and confident in the resilience and the opportunities for our portfolio. During the financial year, the business has delivered a gross portfolio fair value uplift and generated strong realisation proceeds. We did this while maintaining a robust balance sheet, continuing to invest in our portfolio and enhancing shareholder returns with our share buyback programme.

0:51 Total net fair value growth was 5% or £72 million, comprised of £180 million of valuation uplifts, net of £108 million of reductions. Market leading companies still command a premium when raising capital, but there has been some softening of technology sector public company multiples, reducing some of our portfolio valuations. This overall net fair value uplift was partially offset by adverse FX headwinds of 22 million. Our gross portfolio value ended the year at 1.4 billion and our NAV at 1.2 billion, both very slightly down on 2024, despite the net fair value uplift. This is because of realisations exceeding investments, alongside deployment of cash to share buybacks.

1:43 The accretive effect of these share buybacks contributed to our NAV per share increase from 662 pence last year to 671 pence this year. Realizations totaled 135 million, far exceeding the 100 million guidance we set last year, and included exits from mFiles, Endomag, PerkBox, Graphcore, and a small partial realization of Revolut in a secondary deal led by Revolut. It is also worth highlighting that all of these exits were at or above our holding value, providing further proof points of our robust valuation process. Our evergreen balance sheet model has allowed us to then use this liquidity to support our balanced capital allocation policy and maintain a strong financial position.

2:36 During the year, we invested $73 million into our portfolio. For example, a Series C investment into Decyfex, a leader in AI-powered digital pathology. We also completed more than 15 million of share buybacks in the financial year and began a further 15 million programme in March 2025. recognising that the current discount level between our share price and NAV makes buying our own shares a NAV accretive proposition. So, looking ahead, we are optimistic. As our CEO, Ben Wilkinson, highlighted, a key strategic priority is to build scale with third-party assets managed alongside our balance sheet.

3:22 Our portfolio companies are innovative, future-focused and aligned with the investment themes shaping tomorrow's economy. We believe this positions us strongly to deliver long-term value in today's environment and beyond.