LONDON (ShareCast) - Imperial Innovations has the right to take interesting discoveries from Imperial College London and package them up into companies that eventually can be floated or sold. The majority of its 92 investments are in pharmaceuticals; one of the most promising, Circassia, is well into clinical trials for treatments for cat, dust mite and grass allergies. Imperial’s full-year figures revealed that the value of the portfolio of investments grew by 21 per cent to 188 m pounds. Add on cash and other assets and total net assets were 230.5m pounds.

That compares with a market capitalisation of £384 m and means that there is a lot of hope value built into the shares, which were up 25p to 385p on Wednesday. Yet the company does say that a “number” — let’s say a handful — of its investments are heading for “value-creation events”, a sale to Big Pharma or an initial public offering (IPO). Circassia is in the books at £225m in all, so it is big enough, although it probably won’t be the first. The shares are tightly held, almost a half with Invesco. This is one to buy as a high-risk investment, if they become available, and tuck away for a time, although only with money you can afford to leave untouched, The Times’ Tempus column says.

Wednesday's halfway figures from Vertu Motors showed that its strategy to buy under-performing car dealerships in a still-fragmented industry and buff them is working. Adjusted pre-tax profits went ahead by 80% to £8.8m while the dividend was up by 20% to 0.3p. That came on the back of strong domestic demand — industry figures suggest that car sales will rise almost 20% this year — and has been driven by the dumping in the UK of large numbers of vehicles made in Europe and surplus to demand there, with attractive finance packages.

Somewhat ironically, the only downside risk for the company is a recovery in the Eurozone, should that lead to said surplus in vehicles disappearing. Also worth pointing out, the firm raised £50m in June to pay for Farnell Land Rover, which took it into the premium car arena, and for other acquisitions. The shares sell on 14 times holdings. About right, then. 'Hold', says Tempus.


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