AGM Statement

RNS Number : 6662E

IP Group PLC

10 May 2017

 

FOR RELEASE ON

10 May 2017

IP Group plc - AGM statement

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Company" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, issues the following statement ahead of its Annual General Meeting which will take place at 2pm today at the Group's London office. This statement provides an update on the Group's progress for the period since 31 December 2016.

Portfolio update

As at 30 April 2017, the fair value of the Group's portfolio was £652.1m compared to £614.0m at 31 December 2016. This reflects a net fair value increase of £29.3m and portfolio investments of £8.8m during the period.

The fair value increase in the period of £29.3m was due to a net increase in the fair value of the Group's holdings in AIM-listed portfolio companies, which increased by £16.1m in the period, and a net increase in the value of the Group's private portfolio companies.  From the quoted portfolio, the most significant increases arose from Xeros (+£7.4m), Diurnal (+£4.7m), Actual Experience (+£4.0m) and Ceres Power (+£3.6m) offset to a degree by hVivo (-£5.7m) and Tissue Regenix (-£5.2m), while the most notable fair value change in the private portfolio arose from Ultrahaptics Holdings Limited, whose recently announced fundraising resulted in a direct unrealised fair value gain to IP Group of £8.8m and a fair value gain of £3.2m to IP Venture Fund II, the latter of which is included within the Group's consolidated results.

The Group's portfolio now comprises holdings in 50 intellectual property-based companies categorised within the Focus or Development stage, a further 41 Early stage companies and 3 Multi-sector platform holdings. Over the period, the Group deployed capital totalling £8.8m to 14 portfolio companies and opportunities.

Significant developments in the Group's portfolio companies since 31 December 2016 include:

·    Ultrahaptics Ltd recently announced that it had completed a fundraising of £17.9m to support its global expansion and entry into virtual and augmented reality markets. The funding was supported by both existing shareholders, including IP Group and Woodford Investment Management, and new investors, Cornes Technology Investments Limited and Dolby Family Ventures.

·    Actual Experience plc announced it had raised a total of £17.5m (before expenses) by means of a conditional placing in March. The proceeds of the placing will enable Actual Experience to put in place the resources to support its channel partners as they commence the deployment of its technology into their global enterprise customer base.

·    Xeros Technology Group plc announced the launch of Symphony Project, providing manufacturers of conventional commercial washing machines with 'open source' access to Xeros' innovative polymer technology. Xeros has developed a simple retrofit pedestal that integrates Xeros' cleaning system into conventional machinery whilst causing minimal disruption to the manufacturing process. This provides a gateway for the incorporation of Xeros' technology into any commercial washing machine.

·    Avacta Group plc announced that an evaluation of its Affimer technology by a large, global diagnostics developer had successfully concluded and that the third party had taken exclusive rights to several Affimer reagents for an undisclosed sum. This is the first such evaluation to conclude and it has led to an agreement to provide exclusivity for certain Affimers which are relevant in a large diagnostic market. This is an important commercial step and a validation of the significant potential of the licensing business model.

·    In the US, our first two portfolio companies from US university partners, Exyn Technologies and Uniformity Labs, raised a combined £5.4m in new post seed financing rounds via private placement of ordinary shares.

Balance sheet update

At 30 April 2017, the Group had cash of £93m, a diversified portfolio valued at £652m and net assets of £797m. The Group's 'Hard' net assets, i.e. excluding goodwill and intangibles, were £720m or approximately 127p per share.

For more information, please contact:

IP Group plc	www.ipgroupplc.com
Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer Greg Smith, Chief Financial Officer Liz Vaughan-Adams, Communications	[phone] [phone]/[phone]
Charlotte Street Partners
Andrew Wilson	[phone]

Notes for editors

About IP Group

IP Group is a leading intellectual property commercialisation company which focuses on evolving great ideas, mainly from its partner universities, into world-changing businesses. The Group has pioneered a unique approach to developing these ideas and the resulting businesses by providing access to business building expertise, capital (through its 100%-owned FCA-authorised subsidiary IP Capital), networks, recruitment and business support. IP Group has a strong track record of success and its portfolio comprises holdings in approximately 100 early-stage to mature businesses across four main sectors -- Biotech, Cleantech, Healthcare and Technology. The Company is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com.

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