TIDMPIRI

RNS Number : 7391X

Pires Investments PLC

23 December 2019

Pires Investments PLC

("Pires" or the "Company")

Investment in Sure Valley Ventures - sale of Artomatix

Further to the announcement made by the Company on 21 November 2019, confirming the Company's initial investment of GBP1.1m into Sure Valley Ventures ("SVV"), the Board announces that it has been advised by SVV that an agreement has been signed to sell one of the companies within the SVV portfolio, Artomatix, for cash to a leading technology company. Artomatix provides an artificial intelligence platform that is able to automate the creation of 3D content.

When realisations are made within SVV, the proceeds are distributed to the fund's investors. As a result of this sale, the amount accruing to Pires is expected to be around EUR803,000, of which EUR718,000 will be distributed shortly, with the balance expected in 18 months, subject to certain terms and conditions as is customary for transactions of this type. Pires has around a 13% interest in SVV.

The sale of Artomatix represents a cash multiple of around 5x the initial investment made by SVV and demonstrates the quantum and speed with which potential returns can be generated from the SVV portfolio. Furthermore, the return achieved by Pires is even more significant given that the Company only recently completed its investment.

SVV is a venture capital fund founded by Barry Downes and Brian Kinane, in partnership with Shard Capital, focused on investing in the software technology sector with a specific focus artificial intelligence ("AI"), the internet of things ("IoT") and augmented and virtual reality ("AR/VR"). SVV currently has a portfolio of nine investee companies at different stages of development.

Peter Redmond, Chairman said:

"The sale of Artomatix represents a very substantial return from our investment in SVV over a matter of months - our investment in SVV is proving to be an even more exciting investment than we initially expected. We look forward to good progress being made at the other companies within the SVV portfolio and expect further positive developments in the portfolio during 2020."

Brian Kinane, Co-founder and General Partner, Sure Valley Ventures said:

"The sale of Artomatix is a further demonstration that the focus of Sure Valley Ventures on the machine and deep learning sector is an effective strategy and one where we believe many of our portfolio companies will benefit from the global secular trend of substantial capital investment in the use of AI to automate traditional labour-intensive knowledge industries."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

Enquiries:

 
 Pires Investments plc            Tel: +44 (0) 20 3368 8961 
  Peter Redmond, Chairman 
  Nicholas Lee, Director 
 Nominated Adviser                Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 0880 
  Cairn Financial Advisers LLP 
  Liam Murray/Tony Rawlinson 
 Broker                           Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0935 
  Peterhouse Capital Limited       Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 0936 
  Duncan Vasey/Lucy Williams 
 
 
 Sure Valley Ventures               Tel: +353 87 9075535 
  Barry Downes, Managing Partner

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END

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December 23, 2019 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)

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