Molten Ventures - Readying the ship for choppy waters

Molten had a very strong FY22 (net growth in fair value of 37%), delivering a solid series of cash exits (realisations/gross portfolio value of 13%). Despite this, Molten’s shares trade at 0.44x FY22 NAV per share of 937p, which seems an unjustifiably deep discount given its 26% y-o-y NAV/share growth and five-year NAV/share CAGR of 22%. Moreover, Molten has a broad-based portfolio, weighted towards the more robust B2B business model. Molten’s quoted holdings represented 4% of FY22 fair value and, allowing for share price falls to 8 June 2022, adjusted NAV/share still stands at c 925p. In our opinion, the Molten’s portfolio does not warrant adiscount of over 50%, given that the core portfolio is well-funded (80% funded to exit or with 24 months’ runway) and that recent valuations (Aiven, CoachHub, Thought Machine) have delivered substantial uplifts.