REG - Syncona Limited - Update re. Silicon Valley Bank

SynconaAnnouncement

13/03/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 7196S  Syncona Limited  13 March 2023

Syncona Limited

Update re. Silicon Valley Bank

13 March 2023

Syncona Ltd, a leading healthcare company focused on creating, building and
scaling global leaders in life science, today provides an update following the
Bank of England's ("BoE") announcement that it intends to apply to the courts
to place Silicon Valley Bank UK Limited ("SVBUK") into a Bank Insolvency
Procedure, and the announcement that Silicon Valley Bank ("SVB") has been
closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation,
and that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC") has taken control
of SVB and created the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Santa Clara to hold
its deposits.

Syncona's direct exposure de minimis

Syncona has a de minimis amount of cash and cash equivalents with SVBUK
equating to less than 0.4% of its capital base of £653.8 million and 0.2% of
Net Asset Value (NAV) 1  (#_ftn1) .

Syncona working closely with portfolio companies to navigate evolving
situation

Syncona's portfolio companies have a range of banking relationships, some of
which include SVB and SVBUK. Syncona's estimated indirect exposure across its
portfolio is c.6% of NAV 2  (#_ftn2) , 3  (#_ftn3) , with all but a de minimus
amount with SVBUK.

The Syncona team has been working closely with its portfolio companies to
support their ongoing operations and we are pleased to see the announcement
from the government that it is working on a solution to ensure the short term
operational and cashflow needs of SVBUK customers. The team has also been
supporting the companies' engagement with SVBUK and other parties around the
recoverability of deposits, working alongside the strong syndicate investors
in its portfolio companies.

Next steps

Syncona has a strong capital base to support our companies operationally if
required, as we await guidance from the BoE to ascertain the process and
timeline for the potential recovery of deposits.

The Company is engaging with the UK Government and will keep the market
updated on the evolving situation.

 ENDS 

Enquiries

Syncona Ltd

Annabel Clark / Fergus Witt

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3981 7940

 

FTI Consulting

Ben Atwell / Natalie Garland-Collins / Tim Stamper

Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 1000

 

 

 

About Syncona

Syncona's purpose is to invest to extend and enhance human life. We do this by
creating and building companies to deliver transformational treatments to
patients in areas of high unmet need.

Our strategy is to create, build and scale companies around exceptional
science to create a diversified portfolio of 20-25 globally leading healthcare
businesses, across development stage and therapeutic areas, for the benefit of
all our stakeholders. We focus on developing treatments for patients by
working in close partnership with world-class academic founders and management
teams. Our balance sheet underpins our strategy enabling us to take a
long-term view as we look to improve the lives of patients with no or poor
treatment options, build sustainable life science companies and deliver strong
risk-adjusted returns to shareholders.

 1  (#_ftnref1) As at 31 December 2022

 2  (#_ftnref2) See footnote one

 3  (#_ftnref3) Calculated by total amount understood by us to be deposited by
portfolio companies with SVB and SVBUK, in each case multiplied by Syncona's
fully diluted ownership percentage of the relevant company

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