Fastnet Equity has said it is well positioned to identify and assess potential investment targets within the healthcare sector after recently completing the demerger of its oil and gas assets.

The Dublin and London-listed company, which is chaired by one of the founding directors of Merrion Corporate Finance, Cathal Friel, announced a $1.5 million loss (€1.38m) for the sx months ending September 30th, as against a $39.7 million for the previous six months when the group reported an impairment charge of $36.6 million (€32.8m) arising from its decision to abandon its oil and gas activities off the coasts of Ireland and Morocco and switch to the biopharma sector.

For the same six month period a year earlier, the company reported a $1.6 million loss.

Fastnet announced the completion of the demerger of its oil and gas assets into a separate company - Fastnet Hydrocarbons Limited - last week after shareholders approved the move in late August.

Fastnet, which has offices in Dublin and London, began trading on the AIM and ESM markets in June 2012.

The company said it has a cash balance of €13.6 million at the end of November, prior to the grant of an unsecured four-year loan of €660,000 to finance residual running of oil and gas assets.

Fastnet also announced the appointment of Harry Stratford as a non-executive director. Mr Stratford has over 40 years’ experience in the phama sector and previously founded and was chief executive of Shire for almost a decade. He also founded Prostrakan, which was acquired by Kyowa Hakko Kirin of Japan in 2011.