Miton UK Microcap Trust plc (LON:MINI) Co-Fund Manager Gervais Williams caught up with DirectorsTalk to discuss their portfolio company Frontier IP Group plc.
Q1: Are there certain companies in the Miton UK Microcap Trust portfolio that are well positioned to improve shareholder value in the near to medium term?
A1: The great advantage is that many of these companies are overlooked, valuations have come down, people have been more uncertain about the UK over recent months and that’s led to valuations falling to what I consider to be extraordinary low levels.
There are companies which are in themselves bringing businesses through. A good example is Frontier IP Group plc (LON:FIPP) which spins companies out of the mainstream universities.
They don’t put a lot of cash in but they put a lot of marketing, they put a lot of secretarial skills and managerial skills in for equity and when these businesses do get to a position where they’re a lot larger, the market cap can rise by very substantially. They’ve already had one of their companies floated on Nasdaq and taken a very very substantial profit. The business itself is very well funded, they’ve got a crop of other companies coming through and, as I say, in spite of global recession, their prospects are there. It’s only a £36 million market cap – its share price has been falling in spite of its strong financial position and upside potential.
Just ridiculously overlooked share prices with the potential across the fund overall to hopefully give us some very good recovery potential and long term upside potential for the trust.
Miton UK Microcap Trust plc intends to invest primarily in the smallest companies, measured by their market capitalisation, quoted or traded on an exchange in the United Kingdom at the time of investment.
Frontier IP Group unites science and commerce by identifying strong intellectual property and accelerating its development through a range of commercialisation services. A critical part of the Group’s work is involving relevant industry partners at an early stage of development to ensure technology meets real world demands and needs.
