Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Net Asset Value by the year-end (March 31) had increased to £49.1m from £48m. Prelude reports a significant increase in the valuation of two unquoted investments, FillFactory NV and Alphamosaic.

FillFactory is a semiconductor company providing image sensors for professional digital photography and industrial and scientific applications. It achieved revenues of £17.7m in 2003 and is on target for substantially increased sales. 

Alphamosaic is a semiconductor company supplying high performance multimedia processors to the mobile phone and other consumer markets. It achieved sales of £5.3m in 2003 and is ahead of its target for revenue growth in the current year. 

Chairman David Wansbrough said that after some challenging years for small technology companies, a marked improvement in the environment for their businesses had been witnessed.

The companies are again planning for growth and Prelude says that, subject to the realisation of some of the more mature investments in the portfolio, it will be well positioned to start investing in a new generation of technology company opportunities.

Prelude had 17 active investments at year-end and was committed to invest a further £1.2m in Alphamosaic, Phyworks and ZBD Displays. Since year-end, it has invested a further £0.8m in m-spatial, Polatis, Sciona and ZBD.