AYRSHIRE entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter has hailed “another year of good progress” for his West Coast Capital group, and highlighted its continued investment in unlisted businesses such as TV Squared, writes Ian McConnell.
Assets across Sir Tom’s West Coast Capital Holdings, Investments and Assets companies rose by £14.5 million, to £155m, during the year to March 31.
A spokesman for West Coast Capital said it had continued to invest in non-listed businesses such as Edinburgh-based TV Squared, which was “now a global player in TV data analytics”.
TV Squared was founded in 2012 by technology entrepreneur Calum Smeaton to bring “state-of-the-art analytical capabilities” to television advertising.
West Coast Capital’s other unlisted investments include Silicon Valley-based Dynamic Action, which the spokesman noted had just signed retailer H&M as a client.
During the year to March, West Coast Capital Holdings’ cash reserves increased from £36m to more than £61m.
Sir Tom, who has called for a second referendum on Brexit, said: “This year marked another year of good progress at West Coast Capital and we remain poised and able, with significant cash reserves, to capitalise on investment opportunities. We have continued to invest in our existing portfolio where we have seen substantive progress in customer and revenue acquisition.”
West Coast Capital noted that its non-listed assets were held in its accounts at cost, with no mark-ups. It said that it had, because of the FRS 102 accounting standard, recorded a mark-down on foreign exchange held, in spite of not selling any currency.
Sir Tom, who made around £260m from the £290m sale of the Sports Division chain to JJB Sports in 1998, said: “We have always prepared our accounts with prudence being our watchword; our policy never to mark up an asset on our balance sheet.
“That prudence has again been undermined by accounting standard FRS 102 as we marked down foreign exchange currencies held, but not traded. Personally, I only want to mark up or down value when we transact and this accounting standard does not allow us to do that.”
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