Agronomics (LSE:ANIC) is a penny share that has slumped 25% since July and 60% over five years. Shareholders haven’t had much to cheer about.
However, Chair Jim Mellon clearly sees value at 6p per share. According to my data provider, he has spent £168,488 in total scooping up shares on two separate occasions in February. This was the first significant insider buying activity in a year.
Clearly, Mellon is bullish then. Should I follow him and add a few shares to my own portfolio?
Image source: Getty Images
Solid progress
As a quick recap, Agronomics is a venture capital company with a £71m market cap focused on the nascent field of cellular agriculture. Often called ‘clean meat’, it’s where meat and fish are grown from cells rather than killed for consumption.
Beyond the ethical benefits, this technology makes it “possible to grow meat quickly, cleanly and locally, without the need for imports“. Food chain security is becoming more important for nations, as is concern over the destruction of rainforests for animal agriculture.
The firm has stakes in 20+ start-ups, hoping a handful of them find commercial success and drive big shareholder gains. As the share price tells us though, this hasn’t really happened. At least not yet.
Earlier this month, Agronomics published its results for the six months ending 31 December. The company achieved a £10m net profit during the period, a reversal from a £6.5m loss the year before.
Net asset value (NAV) per share increased by 11.7% to 13.78p, up from 12.34p in June 2025. Strong performance was driven by unrealised gains in key holdings, including Liberation Bioindustries (£4.1m) and Blue Nalu (£4m), following successful funding rounds.
Holdings
Blue Nalu is a cultivated seafood company that creates products from fish cells. Its initial focus is bluefin tuna, which is one of the world’s most expensive and overfished seafoods.
If the tuna is approved, Blue Nalu says it’s targeting the “premium sushi and fine-dining establishments across the United States, working with chefs, distributors, and strategic partners to provide a consistent, high-quality product with year-round availability”.
With the global population expected to reach around 9.5bn by 2050, we can’t keep overfishing the oceans. That’s just obviously not sustainable.
In theory then, this firm has a very large commercial opportunity ahead. As such, it has a 12% weighting in the portfolio, making it the second-largest holding after Liberation Bioindustries.
Top 10 holdings (at 31 December 2025)
| Company | Focus | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| Liberation Bioindustries | Contract manufacturer for precision fermentation | 25% |
| Blue Nalu | Cultivated bluefin tuna | 12% |
| SuperMeat | Cultivated poultry | 11% |
| Onego Bio | Cultivated egg proteins | 8% |
| Formo Bio | Cultivated dairy proteins | 7% |
| All G Co Holdings | Cultivated dairy proteins | 5% |
| Clean Food Group | Cultivated palm oil | 5% |
| Solar Foods | Novel air protein | 5% |
| EVERY Company | Cultivated egg proteins | 4% |
| Meatly | Cultivated pet food | 3% |
Worth a punt?
The biggest risk here, of course, is that none of these start-ups might ever achieve commercial success. One called Meatable fell by the wayside last year, resulting in a £11.9m write down for Agronomics. Others could follow.
Another thing worth mentioning here is that this penny stock is extremely volatile. It can rise and fall 50% in the blink of an eye, so it’s definitely not for the risk-averse.
The shares are currently trading at a 50% discount to NAV. So, in theory, there could be a bargain here, assuming the portfolio progresses well and market sentiment picks up for Agronomics. Mellon loading up is obviously a good sign.
On the other hand, there’s no guarantee the discount will narrow. For me, Agronomics is akin to a roll of the dice. I see safer opportunities elsewhere for my own ISA.
