The commercialisation firm generated a $50.3m pre-tax profit having seen off pressure over shareholder dividends and sold its stake in a Virginia Tech-founded space tech business.
Revenues at US-based, UK-listed commercialisation firm Allied Minds fell by an annual 52% to $2.7m in 2019 but the firm still posted higher pre-tax profits thanks to the performance of its portfolio investments.
Pre-tax income rose to $50.3m from $45.4m in 2018 following a $41.2m fair value uptick on Allied Minds shareholdings, against just $2.2m from the previous year.
The company invested a total of $104m in new and existing portfolio companies, up from $84.9m in 2018.
Allied Minds had paused new portfolio additions to protect returns for shareholders, but later recovered the situation with the disposal of its stake in Virginia Tech-founded data collection satellite company HawkEye 360 last September.
Exiting HawkEye 360 helped bring the total gain on deconsolidated Allied Minds subsidiaries to $69.8m from $52.9m in 2018. The firm’s net cash and investments fell to $90.6m from $97.7m last year, but the amount held at parent level rose by annual 66.2% to reach $84.1m.
Recent highlights at Allied Minds have included an extended $64.7m series C round for its Virginia Tech-founded wireless spectrum sharing technology investment Federated Wireless, as well as the promotion of senior independent director Harry Rein to chairman in March 2020.
