Mercia Asset Management plc
Mercia Asset Management PLC (formerly Mercia Technologies PLC) is a UK regional, multi-asset private capital manager operating venture capital, development capital (lending/private equity) and property finance platforms, alongside a legacy balance-sheet direct investment portfolio it is seeking to realise. It manages c.£2.2bn of assets, investing via its own fund platforms (Northern VCTs, EIS funds, British Business Bank-backed regional funds) and generates revenue mainly from recurring fund management fees. Headquartered in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire, with 11 regional offices across the UK.
FY2026 in sixty seconds
year to 31 Mar 2026 · approved 29 Jun 2026 · 104 pages · Companies House
Mercia Asset Management, which runs investment funds for UK regional businesses and earns most of its income from fund management fees, saw revenue slip to £34.1m in the year to 31 March 2026 from £35.2m. It made a loss before tax of £7.7m, against a profit of £5.4m the year before.
The main reason was a £12.8m fall in the paper value of the company's own investments in young businesses, amid weaker venture markets, along with write-downs of three holdings. Fees from new investment rounds were lower, and there were no performance fees from its venture capital trusts this year. Day-to-day running costs fell.
Cash at the year end was £26.4m, down from £40.1m, after investing, paying dividends and buying back shares. The company has no borrowings. The dividend for the year rose to 1p a share. Management said it entered the new year confident, with a strong pipeline of deals. However, it now expects most sales of its own investments to come later than its original target of 31 March 2027. The auditor raised no doubt about the company's ability to keep trading.
Fund management fees from growing third-party funds under management (FuM)
Fund management fees £23,995,000 (2025: £23,861,000), 97.7% of revenue derived from fund management activities
page 27Scaling third-party FuM delivering operational leverage
EBITDA margin improved to 23.7% (2025: 22.1%/19.2%) on record EBITDA of £8,102,000, up 6.5%
page 26Mercia '27 targets: grow AuM to in excess of £3.0bn; double EBITDA to c.£10million; and divest up to 70% of the direct investment portfolio by 31 March 2027 — though the Board now expects the majority of realisations to fall between FY28 and FY29, a 'frustrating but realistic re-calibration' to reflect current market conditions
page 4Progressive dividend policy adopted December 2020; FY26 total dividend 1.00p per share (interim 0.39p paid Jan 2026, final 0.61p proposed), a c.5% increase on FY25's 0.95p; final dividend subject to shareholder approval at AGM 24 Sept 2026, payable 30 Oct 2026 to holders on register 2 Oct 2026; alongside this, an annual £3.0m share buyback programme is maintained (continued for FY27 from 1 April 2026)
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GBP millions, negatives in brackets. Per-share lines in pence. Share counts in millions. Margins and returns as percentages, calculated from the filed figures. later is what a following report restated the figure to; vs is a second reading that disagrees. The figure shown is the one the original filing printed, and both readings are kept. Click any figure: opens the report page it was read from, highlighted; shows how it was calculated.
Nothing restated
Every figure is read again from the following year’s report: 367 confirmed, 9 differ.
No figure has been restated: every figure a later report printed again, it printed the same.