The Scottish National Investment Bank recorded a net loss of £138 million for the year to 31 March 2026, its largest since launching in November 2020 and its fifth consecutive full-year loss. The result combines £65.1 million of realised losses from three early investments that collapsed into administration with £84.7 million of unrealised losses, driven by write-downs and by anticipated losses on two further portfolio companies whose administration processes had not completed by year-end.
The bank posted investment income of £32.3 million, down from £34.5 million the previous year but ahead of forecast, and operating costs of £20 million, below budget. It reported an operating profit of £12 million before investment losses. Net assets at 31 March 2026 stood at £702.7 million. During the year the bank committed a record £374 million to Scottish businesses and projects, its highest annual figure since launch, and crowded in £445 million of third-party capital alongside its own, up 37% on the previous year’s £324 million.
The three failed investments driving the realised losses were M Squared Lasers, the Glasgow photonics company that was the bank’s first investment and where SNIB had a £34 million exposure; Trojan Energy, the Aberdeen-based kerbside electric-vehicle charging business, which had drawn down £26 million of a £28 million commitment before a pre-pack administration in February; and R3 IoT, trading as Krucial, the Glasgow satellite-technology firm, in which SNIB had invested £4.6 million. The anticipated losses included in the £84.7 million unrealised figure relate in part to Orbex, the Scottish rocket manufacturer in which SNIB had a £29 million investment, and to PneumoWave, the Glasgow-headquartered medical technology firm, both of which entered administration during the reporting period. The bank also recorded fair-value provisions against a further seven investee companies, some of whose value it does not expect to recover.
Chief executive David Ritchie, who took up the post in January 2026, told the Herald: “more than 90% of the losses we are reporting were investments that happened in the first three years of the bank’s activities. If you think about those first three years, we were just launching the organisation and thinking about how we could best engage and serve the market. It was on the back of Covid when business and investor confidence and sentiment were challenging.”
The bank has committed more than £1.2 billion across 53 businesses and projects since it was launched in November 2020, alongside £1.9 billion of crowded-in third-party investment. An independent review by Sir John Elvidge, published on 17 August 2026, found expected losses of around £110 million across the bank’s first five years.
