EMV Capital CEO on rising AUM, portfolio catalysts and H2 growth plans

Hello, you're watching Proactive. EMV Capital reported NAV per share of 1 pound 20 at the end of June, following the deconsolidation of Glyco test and Proaxis after successful fundraising.

with the directly held portfolio is valued at 37.8 million pounds, equivalent to 1 pound 36 per share.

Meanwhile, assets under management reached 117.5 million pounds over the six months, core revenue rose 9%.

I'm joined by CEO, Dr. Ilian Iliev to discuss the results, the portfolio, and what comes next.

Iliyan, good to speak with you. What drove that strong growth in assets under management and core revenue?

Thank you, Stephen.

Well look, I mean the first half of the year was um primarily about continuing to execute our strategy in a steady way. There was a pipeline of work uh that we had built uh in Q4 last year that executed through the first half.

uh but also setting up uh the company for the rest of the year. So um not everything that we've been working on is in the public domain, but we have a steady pipeline of work coming through uh and projects that we expect will complete in the second half of the year.

In terms of what drove the um uh changes in in a uh in fair value, uh uh

there's been a mixture of companies that a number of companies had a small or not so small uplift in uh in their valuations. Glyco test in particular had a significant uplift in the context of the transaction that was closed in June.

Uh we've made a provision against one company that's experiencing some difficulties and there were some down rounds, but overall, we were quite pleased that our AUM has increased by um uh by 5% just in the first half and we feel quite confident about the likely trends uh for the rest of the year.

NAV per share rose 145%, but much of that came from the deconsolidation of Glyco test and Proaxis. How should investors assess the underlying performance?

So the deconsolidation of Glyco test and Proxis was a win-win if you will, both for EMV capital and for the companies. For the companies themselves, uh

they had a history with EMV capital and back in and under a different strategy, they were uh uh invested in as subsidiaries and over the last few years as we implemented our new strategy, we helped the companies grow, become more autonomous, attract third party funding. So

them becoming uh uh independent is a key part in their strategy to maximize value and in due course uh exit or be acquired by others.

Um it was an important step for them. For EMV Capital, it was probably the last step of cleanup if you will from the old model. Uh now when investors look at the MV Capital, they can see, they can have a cleaner read through of our balance sheet, uh balance sheet and and NAV. So in that sense, it was uh complex uh to do, but it was an important step that uh uh will help us in communicating to the market going forward.

You syndicated 3.6 million pounds of third-party capital across 15 transactions. How important is that capital light model to EMV's growth?

So, when you look at our corporate finance work, remember that we're not a this is not a stand-alone brokerage. the objective is not to maximize, raise as much possible for anybody.

This is us using our corporate finance uh function to support our portfolio in critical moments. Perhaps they need a bridge to get to a uh to the next extension. Perhaps somebody needs to anchor and lead an investment round to unlock third-party funding.

So, it's been uh quite surgically focused if you will, hence the number of transactions in that. And that has helped the portfolio attract further funding, trade through a difficult moment to get to the other side of the river, and in general help the portfolio to move forward.

Um, we increasingly are looking at, you know, at the next stage of development of these companies is bringing third-party institutional funding and you're starting to see that with some of our companies. Sagetech for instance attracted third-party VC funding and across the martlet portfolio, uh there's been a lot of uh such activity. So, we focus on the bits that we can solve to help the companies get to the next stage.

Which portfolio companies could deliver the biggest value inflection points in the second half and going into 2027, Ilian?

So we the good work done in in the first half of the year and of course last year has positioned several companies for growth in value. Uh maybe I'll talk about uh uh

three of them. So starting with Deeptech recycling. You've seen that post balance she post reporting, we uh had a very exciting transaction, the acquisition of the chemical recycling plant from prime um uh in a uh in the port of Rotterdam. And uh this was the result of many months of work with the Deeptech recycling team

who have a unique reactor for um uh for transforming plastic waste into oil products. Uh and they have been looking for a uh uh site where they can demonstrate commercially the operation of that. So working with them, we identified the prime location,

uh, the location of prime plant. Uh, we structured uh a transaction whereby Deeptech didn't have to contribute money, but they are contributing the reactor and uh we've it's a really exciting deal that will help Deeptech get the demonstration plant and grow further more. It has also created a new venture built project for capital, which in and of itself is quite uh uh quite exciting

and the market will hear for more. Back to Deeptech recycling, we anticipate over the next 12 to 18 months, they'll have multiple value inflection points as they get closer to the launch of their first commercial scale demo plant, which is an important step for them to grow internationally.

I also want to flag AMR bio, if you're if you're recall, we uh uh brought that company into the fold as a venture build model last year. It's a uh uh it's in the item anti-microbial space. They have a really interesting phase two asset that we're looking how to develop further. They've got an upcoming FDA meeting to finalize their plans for a phase free uh uh trial uh uh protocol and we anticipate when that is completed,

that the company will go to market again to raise more money at a substantially higher valuation to the 2 million that we have uh that we have here. There are similar stories to all of these companies, with Proaxis in particular, they had a very difficult 2025 as we disclosed to the market. They've now restarted production and sales are growing quite well, and we've even identified new product areas that they can expand. So,

you know, each and every one of these companies has their own story, but uh, you know, it's it's been a it's been a good first half and we we hope to see more uh results in the public domain in the second half.

Uh, Ilian, with recurring revenues growing and assets under management expanding, what are the key targets for the rest of 2026?

So, as we've flagged to the market, you know, we uh one of our objectives is for EMV capital, the venture capital operation to be operationally self-sufficient.

We're coming close to that. The revenues uh for the first half of the year covered 70% of the costs. So that's positive. Uh but we are also targeting the continued development of the companies as I explained as as ways of crystallizing value for EMV capital and for its uh for its shareholders.

We have quite a few uh projects on the way uh that we anticipate will close before the end of the year and we'll announce those when they do happen. Uh but more broadly within the business itself, we're continuing to invest in our team. We've had some really strong additions to our team. We're investing in our infrastructure. There's been quite a bit done around data and AI that is making our operation uh more productive.

Uh so it's a steady as she goes implementing our strategy, making a better company and uh continuing to drive our portfolio growth.

Ilian, I hope you'll continue to keep us updated with your progress. Thank you very much for your time today.

Thank you.

That's EMV Capital CEO Dr. Ilian Iliev.