Seraphim Space Investment Trust has put out a very strong third quarter update, and the headline number is hard to ignore: net asset value, or NAV, rose 24.8% to £421.3 million. NAV is the value of the trust’s assets minus liabilities, and for investment trusts it is one of the clearest ways to judge whether the underlying portfolio is getting more valuable.
For retail investors, this is a reminder that SSIT is not really a story about current earnings. It is a story about whether its private SpaceTech holdings are becoming more valuable, attracting fresh funding and finding routes to exit. On that score, this quarter looks good.
Seraphim Space Investment Trust Q3 results: the key numbers that matter
| Metric | 31 March 2026 | 31 December 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| NAV | £421.3 million | £337.5 million | 24.8% |
| NAV per share | 177.63p | 142.30p | 24.8% |
| Portfolio valuation | £433.3 million | £331.6 million | 30.7% |
| Share price | 150.0p | 120.0p | 25.0% |
| Market capitalisation | £355.8 million | £284.6 million | 25.0% |
| Liquid resources | £20.9 million | £22.1 million | -5.1% |
| Ongoing charges | 1.52% | 1.79% | -27bp |
| Discount to NAV | -15.6% | -15.7% | 10bp |
The big positive is that the share price kept pace with NAV in the quarter, also rising 25.0%. The less exciting bit is that the shares still sit on a 15.6% discount to NAV, meaning the market is still not giving full credit for the trust’s underlying asset value.
Why the SSIT NAV jumped: ICEYE did the heavy lifting
The portfolio valuation rose by £101.7 million in the period, helped by £101.0 million of fair value movement, £5.5 million of foreign exchange gains and just £0.7 million of acquisitions. In plain English, this was mostly a revaluation story rather than a spending story.
ICEYE was the main engine. Its value in the portfolio climbed from £131.6 million to £198.4 million, a gain of £66.9 million, and it now represents 47.1% of NAV. That is an enormous weighting, so when ICEYE has a good quarter, SSIT has a very good quarter.
The operating update from ICEYE looks impressive on the numbers provided. It reported unaudited 2025 revenue of more than €250 million, EBITDA of more than €100 million and a €1.5 billion contracted order backlog. EBITDA is a rough measure of operating profit before financing and accounting charges, and the key point here is that ICEYE is not just growing – it is already profitable on that metric.
Other contributors also mattered. Xona Space Systems gained £17.9 million in fair value to reach £28.4 million, HawkEye 360 added £7.2 million to £41.4 million, Tomorrow.io rose by £4.5 million to £8.8 million, and LeoLabs added £3.4 million to £15.8 million.
There were a couple of softer spots. D-Orbit fell by £0.6 million and other investments dropped by £1.5 million. That does not spoil the quarter, but it is a useful reminder that this is still venture-style investing and not every line item moves in the same direction.
Portfolio funding strength and liquidity: better than many private market peers
One of the more reassuring lines in the update is around cash runway. SSIT says 85% of portfolio fair value has a robust cash runway, with around 73% fully funded and a further 13% funded for 12 months or more from 31 March 2026.
That matters because private companies can be forced into painful funding rounds if cash gets tight. This update suggests most of the important holdings are not being pushed into a corner. In the current market, that is a strength.
At trust level, SSIT had £20.9 million of cash reserves at 31 March 2026, down from £22.1 million at 31 December 2025. It also had potential additional liquidity of £4.1 million through listed holdings. That is decent support, though it is not a massive war chest relative to portfolio size.
HawkEye 360 IPO and ALL.SPACE sale: why real-world exits change the investment case
This is where the update gets especially interesting. Post period, HawkEye 360 went public on the New York Stock Exchange on 7 May 2026, raising $416 million. The shares opened at $33.80 versus an IPO price of $26, valuing the business at about $2.84 billion.
SSIT says that as at 1 June 2026 its investment in HawkEye 360 was valued at $76.9 million, an uplift of 41.0% to its 31 March 2026 valuation. That is important because it gives investors a market-based datapoint on at least one big holding, rather than relying solely on private market marks.
There was also a post-period agreement to sell ALL.SPACE to York Space Systems, subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions. The consideration will be a mix of cash and York equity, so the final value is not yet fixed. SSIT says it does not currently expect the final value to be materially different from the 31 March 2026 valuation.
That is good, but it is not quite cash in the bank yet. Until the deal closes, there is still execution risk. Investors should treat it as encouraging rather than done and dusted.
Seraphim Space C Share fundraising adds firepower but also raises expectations
On 7 May 2026, SSIT completed a C Share raise. The RNS says the trust raised £136.5 million in the financial highlights section, and later refers to this as a £137 million equity raise, so the latter appears to be a rounded figure.
This is a positive signal. Fresh capital means the manager can back new opportunities and support existing winners. It also suggests there is real investor appetite for a listed SpaceTech vehicle, which is not something you can take for granted.
The flip side is simple: more capital needs to be deployed well. Raising money is the easy part. Turning that into returns is the bit that counts.
The negatives in Seraphim Space Investment Trust Q3 results investors should not ignore
- Portfolio concentration is high – ICEYE alone is 47.1% of NAV. That is great while it keeps performing, but it increases single-asset risk.
- The discount remains stubborn – despite a strong quarter, the shares still trade 15.6% below NAV.
- Performance fee accrual increased sharply – the provision moved from £16.6 million to £32.3 million, which reduces the benefit of portfolio gains flowing through to NAV.
- Some exit values are not fixed yet – the ALL.SPACE sale value cannot be determined until completion.
- Valuation detail is limited – the RNS gives headline fair value movements, but the full valuation methodology for each asset is not disclosed here.
That performance fee point deserves a quick note. The fee is based on the 12 months to 30 June 2026 and is subject to conditions, including cash availability and gains thresholds. So it is not simply an automatic cheque, but it is still a real drag on reported NAV.
What these Seraphim Space results mean for retail investors
My read is that this is a strong update with genuine substance behind it. You have rising NAV, multiple funding rounds across the portfolio, a public listing for HawkEye 360, a signed sale for ALL.SPACE and a major capital raise for SSIT itself. That is a lot of momentum in one announcement.
The reason it matters is that listed venture-style trusts often struggle to prove that portfolio marks are real and that exits will eventually happen. This quarter gives SSIT a better answer to both questions. It still has concentration risk and the discount has not gone away, but the operational and valuation progress looks hard to dismiss.
If you are positive on SpaceTech and want listed exposure, this RNS strengthens the bull case. If you are more cautious, the main challenge is deciding whether the current discount is an opportunity or a warning that the market still wants harder proof. After this update, SSIT has at least moved the debate in its favour.
