Welltel, a Dublin-based telephony, network and connectivity solutions provider, has received an additional £2.3m (€2.5m) in backing from AIM-listed finance firm Duke Royalty.
The money will be used by Welltel to help bankroll the acquisition of Irish firm Globalnet Solutions, which trades as Novi.
There aren’t many people who are relishing the challenges presented by the global coronavirus pandemic; however, Neil Johnson, chief executive of Duke Royalty Ltd, has a point to prove.
Duke Royalty plans paper dividend – Duke Royalty has been reviewing the situation with its business in light of COVID-19. It says “Through its diversified portfolio, Duke naturally has exposure to a range of sectors, some of which are impacted to a greater extent by Covid than others, such as hospitality & leisure. In certain situations where Covid-19 has had the greatest impact, Duke has elected to either accrue, capitalise or equitise its monthly cash payments in the short term with the intention of alleviating the negative cashflow impacts for its royalty partners during this time of unprecedented financial stress.”
Duke Royalty, an Aim-traded company that makes its money by providing capital to companies in exchange for rights to a small percentage of their future revenues over a typical term of 25-40 years, is being priced a hefty 38 per cent below proforma book value of £90.3m (37.7p a share) after factoring in last October’s £17.45m equity raise, at 44p a share. It’s a value opportunity worth exploiting.
Duke Royalty Ltd said Wednesday it still expects its cashflow and loan portfolio for its financial year to be in line with expectations, despite the market turbulence affecting all public companies.
Duke Royalty Ltd on Monday said it has invested an additional GBP1 million into existing royalty partner Lynx Equity UK Ltd. The investment will be used to fund Lynx’s acquisition of Danish door manufacturer Arkas AS, agreed in February.
“We are a serious investor in Ireland; we see it as a very attractive opportunity and place for us to do business. We’ve now got a very strong network of both portfolio companies and relationships in the corporate finance community.”
Duke Royalty announced a follow-on investment of around £7.7m into its existing royalty partner, Bakhchysarai Ireland (BIL), on Thursday. It said the new capital would support BIL’s second acquisition, PharmEng, trading as PE Global, which it described as “one of the leading” healthcare and life sciences recruiters in Ireland, with a growing presence in the UK.
