Oakley Capital Investments

Investment company Oakley Capital, the vehicle that invests alongside and owns 68% of entrepreneur Peter Dubens’ private Oakley Capital Private Equity fund, grew net assets by 16% in the first half to June.

Net asset value (NAV) per share swelled 16% from the end of December to 125p, representing a 31% increase since launch in July 2007. The principal cause for the improvement is the enhanced valuation of Oakley's largest investment, website hosting and domain name manager Host Europe.

A valuation of the private equity fund, ‘by an independent third party’, has substantially lifted the ‘fair value’ of Host Europe, due to its leading position in a strongly growing market. The fund’s other investments, in diversified media business Headland and derivatives and equities broker Monument, are adjudged to not have accumulated any extra value and are still valued at their cost price.

Since the half-year end, Host’s managed hosting services arm Vialtus has been sold to newly AIM-listed Daisy Group, netting Host £13m cash (to go towards paying off £17m of debt) and £29m of Daisy’s shares. Oakley's stake in Host is, it says, ‘strategically well placed for exit’, since Host represents an attractive prospect for consolidators in a fragmented industry, being the second largest hosting provider in the UK and third largest in Germany.

Dubens, who along with a group of fellow dotcom millionaires also recently founded a venture capital fund to back other internet entrepreneurs, is in buoyant mood, saying that ‘potential deal flow in the period has remained strong and we are pursuing a number of possible investment opportunities for the fund’.

Tipped as a speculation here in February at 62p, Oakley shares have since skipped up 22% to 75.5p where, trading below net assets, they remain a promising punt.