The equity capital of INVL Technology, a company that invests in IT businesses, was EUR 19.7 million at the end of 2016, or EUR 1.62 per share, and decreased 18.6 per cent in the year. During the year INVL Technology made investments of EUR 3.8 million. The total value of the company’s investments, after a revaluation of the businesses it owns, decreased by EUR 4.0 million, to EUR 16.7 million at year-end. According to preliminary data, the company’s net loss for 2016, including the revaluation, was EUR 4.5 million.
The valuation of INVL Technology’s investment assets in 2016 was influenced by poorer performance of its businesses due to the costs of regional expansion and development of proprietary products, non-recurring events, and a cyclical contraction of the market caused by delays in the start of a new EU structural funds investment programme.
At the same time, two of the companies controlled by INVL Technology – Algoritmu Sistemos and BAIP – announced dividends during 2016 of EUR 0.25 million and EUR 0.85 million, respectively.
“Having become a closed-end investment company in the middle of last year, we aim to generate a significant return for investors by 2026, and that’s why we’ve focused on decisions which make it possible to boost the value of the business portfolio over the medium and long term. We’ve given priority to expansion of constant access to markets and of the portfolio of business holdings. For their part, the businesses INVL Technology owns have focused on developing and enhancing new and existing products and strengthening competencies for international operations. We believe value will recover and expect to start seeing some of the potential of the new markets, products, and acquisitions already during 2017,” said Kazimieras Tonkūnas, Managing Partner for UTIB INVL Technology at INVL Asset Management.
In this period of active business development, he said, a significant role is being played by cooperation among the company’s firms, which is enabling them not only to use their resources more effectively and adopt best practices, but also to benefit from access to foreign markets and jointly develop new specialised competencies. “We’ll continue to actively develop the companies we’ve acquired. Our objective is to make them global operations, toward that end taking advantage of our businesses’ access to markets and intellectual capital,” Mr Tonkunas said.
At the start of 2017, INVL Technology’s portfolio of directly and indirectly controlled businesses included 16 active companies. Six were added in the past year: the company FINtime was established in Lithuania and Norway Registers Development Rwanda Ltd was established in Rwanda; the creation of NRD Bangladesh, which began in late 2016, was completed in February this year; and the newly acquired companies Algoritmu Sistemos in Lithuania and Andmevara in Estonia and Moldova joined the portfolio.
The change in the company’s investment portfolio was mainly due to the acquisitions of Andmevara and Algoritmu Sistemos in the first half of 2016 and investments in the capital of owned businesses. FINtime UAB was also established.
INVL Technology’s firms, expanding the range of their services, conducted projects in 17 countries in 2016. They provided services to state and commercial institutions, banks, law enforcement structures and other organisations. By the start of 2017, their enlarged network of representative offices provided continual access to nine markets. Such representative offices currently operate in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Norway, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, foreign revenues of Lithuania-based BAIP increased to EUR 2.7 million and 28 per cent of all revenue, and NRD CS’s revenue outside Lithuania grew nearly 90 per cent and accounted for 36 per cent of all the company’s revenue.
To-date INVL Technology has invested in the Norwegian company Norway Registers Development AS with subsidiaries NRD UAB and Etronika UAB in Lithuania, Norway Registers Development East Africa Ltd in Tanzania, Norway Registers Development Rwanda Ltd in Rwanda, NRD Bangladesh Ltd in Bangladesh, and the associated company Infobank Uganda Ltd in Uganda. It has also invested in BAIP UAB with its subsidiary Acena UAB as well as NRD CS UAB and Algoritmu Sistemos UAB, all in Lithuania, and Estonia’s Andmevara AS with its subsidiary Andmevara SRL in Moldova.
On its receipt of a closed-end investment company (UTIB) license in July 2016, INVL Technology’s management was assumed by INVL Asset Management – a part of Invalda INVL, one of the leading asset management groups in the Baltics. UTIB INVL Technology will operate until 14 July 2026.