Safeguard Scientifics Announces Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results
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Safeguard Scientifics Announces Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

Safeguard Scientifics
Safeguard Scientifics

Conference call and webcast on November 2, 2023 at 5 p.m. ET

RADNOR, Pa., Nov. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFE) (“Safeguard” or the “Company”) today announced financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2023.

THIRD QUARTER 2023 HIGHLIGHTS

  • Financial Results

    • Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash totaled $15.7 million at September 30, 2023.

    • The carrying value of the Company’s ownership interests totaled $14.8 million at September 30, 2023. The total cost of the Company’s ownership interests was $122.8 million.

    • Net income for the three months ended September 30, 2023 was $0.9 million, or $0.06 per basic and fully diluted share, as compared with a net loss of $3.2 million, or $0.19 per basic and fully diluted share, for the same period in 2022.

    • Net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 was $5.4 million, or $0.33 per basic and fully diluted share, as compared with a net loss of $9.4 million, or $0.57 per basic and fully diluted share, for the same period in 2022.

  • Exits & Deployments

    • Safeguard received $1.0 million of cash proceeds related to various escrow amounts from prior transactions, primarily from the Lumesis exit which occurred during the third quarter of 2022.

    • There were no deployments during the three months ended September 30, 2023. Safeguard’s year-to-date deployments totaled $3.3 million, consisting primarily of the $3.0 million deployment to Prognos as part of a financing round which included existing and new investors during the second quarter of 2023.

    • As previously disclosed, Trice Medical completed a recapitalization transaction and capital raise in which Safeguard declined to participate that resulted in Safeguard retaining a small, subordinated debt position and a de minimis ownership interest.

    • InfoBionic completed a recapitalization transaction and capital raise, in which Safeguard declined to participate, that reduced our ownership position to approximately 5% and resulted in recording a $1.7 million non-cash observable price change gain to reflect the fair value of the ownership interest.

  • Safeguard Company Performance

    • The aggregate trailing twelve-month revenues ending June 30, 2023 for six of Safeguard’s companies, which excludes the Other Ownership Interests, was $96 million, an increase of 10.3% from the comparable prior period.

  • Operating Costs

    • General and administrative expenses totaled $1.3 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2023 as compared to $1.4 million for the comparable period of 2022, a 3.5% decrease. General and administrative expenses were $3.7 million for the nine-month periods ended September 30, 2023 and 2022.

    • Safeguard’s corporate expenses1 totaled $0.9 million and $0.8 million for the quarters ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively, which represented an increase of 9.8% due to certain professional and legal expenses. Corporate expenses were $2.4 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 as compared to $2.5 million for the comparable period of 2022, a 3.2% decrease.

  • Outlook

    • Safeguard filed a proxy statement related to a special meeting of shareholders to consider approving a series of transactions which would allow the Company to cease the registration of its common stock with the SEC and delist its shares of common stock from trading on The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC.

    • Safeguard has determined that the costs of being a public reporting company outweigh the benefits, and these steps are designed to allow the Company to implement a variety of cost-cutting measures in order to maximize the value to be returned to shareholders upon any additional monetizations from the remaining portfolio.  Other strategic transactions could still be considered by the Safeguard Board if and when they became available.

    • Consistent with its strategy to return value to shareholders, Safeguard is considering declaring a dividend during the quarter ended December 31, 2023, subject to Board approval.

    • Safeguard does not expect to make additional deployments to the portfolio during 2023.

    • Safeguard continues to estimate that the exit values from the remaining portfolio companies, assuming normal conditions and ordinary course exits, would range between $25 million and $45 million over the next two years.

    • Safeguard will continue to closely manage corporate expenses for the remainder of 2023. We expect corporate expenses for the annual period of 2023 to be between $3.1 to $3.2 million, higher than our estimate last quarter but within the range of what was previously estimated for the year.