HgCapital Trust plc Regulatory News (HGT)

HgCapital Trust plc 

1 February 2016

HgCapital, the Manager of HgCapital Trust plc ("The Trust"), today announces a majority investment in Kinapse, a leading global provider of advisory, capability building and operational services to the life sciences industry, headquartered in London. The terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

HgCapital Trust plc will invest in Kinapse alongside other institutional clients of HgCapital, who will participate through the HgCapital 7 Fund. The Trust, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange, gives private and institutional investors the opportunity to participate in all HgCapital's investments. The Trust will contribute a total of approximately £10.0 million.

The acquisition of Kinapse represents the eighth investment by the HgCapital 7 Fund, and following completion, the Fund will be approximately 55% invested.

Based on the 30 November 2015 reported NAV (including all announced transactions) the Trust's liquid resources available for future deployment are estimated to be £49.3 million (10% of the pro-forma 30 November 2015 NAV, excluding a £40 million standby facility). The transaction will reduce the Trust's outstanding commitments to invest in HgCapital deals to approximately £128 million (26% of the pro-forma 30 November 2015 NAV).

HgCapital announces investment in Kinapse

HgCapital's Services team has announced today a majority investment in Kinapse, a leading global provider of advisory, capability building and operational services to the life sciences industries, focused on regulatory compliance and quality. Kinapse is headquartered in London. HgCapital will back the existing management and assume majority ownership from management shareholders and Synova Capital. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Established ten years ago by Co-Founders Nicholas Edwards, Chairman, and Andy Black, CEO, Kinapse provides advisory, capability building and operational services to the world's leading life sciences organisations, their customers, suppliers and regulators across a range of specialist areas, including quality and compliance, regulatory and medical affairs, pharmacovigilance and clinical trial disclosure. The Group has offices in the UK, India and the United States and employs over 500 professionals worldwide. Kinapse is a partner of 9 out of the top 10 global pharma companies.

The Services team has followed Kinapse closely for several years, and this investment fits HgCapital's strategy of investing in leading global providers of regulatory-driven services across several industry end-markets, examples of this focus include ATC and Radius within the Services sector, regulatory software in the TMT sector, and significant previous experience investing around the Healthcare sector. Kinapse demonstrates many of the business model characteristics that HgCapital looks for, providing an excellent platform for growth across a diversified and loyal client base. HgCapital will work closely with the management team to accelerate Kinapse's strong, organic growth and will also evaluate inorganic growth opportunities.

"I am enormously grateful for the great work of our global team during the past ten years. We have been privileged to work with many industry leaders and to have had fantastic support from Synova Capital since they invested in Kinapse in 2012 " said Andy Black, CEO. "We are all delighted to be partnering with the HgCapital team as we take the business forwards with a vision of achieving sector leadership across our Advise, Build and Operate services."

Nicholas Edwards, Chairman, said "This investment is recognition of the success already achieved by Kinapse and provides us with a significant financial partner to support our continuing growth as we work with leading pharmaceutical companies to help them rapidly bring new medicines to patients. We are delighted that our unique model combining advisory and operational services has again been recognised as the best way to support the life sciences industry."

"We have been deeply impressed by the Kinapse team, who have built the business into one of the leading pharma regulatory service providers to the global pharmaceutical industry," said Philipp Schwalber, a Director in the HgCapital Services team. "Through its outstanding people and excellent service, Kinapse is uniquely positioned in this rapidly expanding global market."

Andrew Land, Partner at HgCapital added, "We are delighted that Andy and his team chose HgCapital as their new investor. Kinapse has a huge opportunity for growth over the next few years and we will support this through our deep services sector expertise."

-End- 

For further details:

HgCapital

Laura Dixon +44 (0)20 7089 7888

Maitland

Seda Ambartsumian +44 (0)20 7379 5151

Jamie Dunkley +44 (0)20 7379 5151

About HgCapital Trust plc

HgCapital Trust plc is an investment trust whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: HGT.L). The Trust is a client of HgCapital, giving investors exposure to a portfolio of high-growth private companies, through a liquid vehicle. New investments and existing portfolio companies are managed by HgCapital, an experienced and well-resourced private equity firm with a long-term track record of delivering superior risk-adjusted returns for its investors. For further details, please see www.hgcapitaltrust.com.

Neither the contents of HgCapital Trust's, HgCapital's, Synova's or Kinapse's websites nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the websites (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement.