OHM First Day of Dealings
IP2IPO Group PLC
11 March 2004
For Immediate Release 11 March 2004
IP2IPO Group plc
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping PLC announces First Day of Dealings on AIM
IP2IPO Group plc (AIM: IPO), the intellectual property company that
commercialises university technology, is pleased to announce that Offshore
Hydrocarbon Mapping plc (AIM: OHM) ('OHM' or the 'Company') has today floated on
the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange plc.
KBC Peel Hunt Ltd, on behalf of OHM, raised £10 million (after expenses) via a
placing at the placing price of £1.70 per ordinary share (the 'Placing Price').
OHM's market capitalisation on admission, at the Placing Price, was £49.3
million.
OHM is the first spin-out company arising from IP2IPO's partnership with the
University of Southampton, which was entered into in March 2002. IP2IPO was
instrumental in the formation of OHM in June 2002 and provided seed capital
finance. OHM is the first flotation from the IP2IPO portfolio, representing a
significant milestone for the Group.
IP2IPO Group plc sold 588,235 shares at the time of OHM's flotation, realising
proceeds of £1 million. IP2IPOGroup plc currently holds 3,021,765 OHM ordinary
shares, representing 10.42% of OHM's issued ordinary share capital.
David Norwood, Chief Executive Officer of IP2IPO, commenting on today's
announcement, said:
'OHM is a tremendous success story. The rapid development of the business since
formation is a testament to the innovation of OHM's academic founders and the
quality of its management team. OHM's flotation is a landmark for IP2IPO and the
University of Southampton, showing how effectively we are able to identify
promising university IP and assist in its development all the way to IPO.'
Dave Pratt, Chief Executive Officer of OHM, said:
'OHM is delighted with the success of its flotation. OHM has made fantastic
progress to date and has benefited enormously from the support it has received
from the IP2IPO team. We are now looking forward to driving the business forward
and building value for our shareholders.'
Tony Raven, Director of the University of Southampton's Centre for Enterprise
and Innovation, said:
'We are delighted with the success of OHM especially given the short time since
its formation. OHM demonstrates the real commercial value that we can create
from our research and this success will reinforce the strong entrepreneurial
culture developing in our academic research community. It also underlines the
value of our pioneering partnership with IP2IPO in creating the first publicly
quoted company from the successful spin outs from the University of
Southampton.'
The text of the OHM announcement, which was released today, is reproduced below:
For Immediate Release: 11 March 2004
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc announces flotation on the Alternative
Investment Market
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc (OHM), a provider of remote electromagnetic
sensing services designed to detect the presence of offshore oil and gas, has
today been admitted to London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM).
KBC Peel Hunt Ltd is OHM's nominated advisor and broker.
The company has raised £10.0 million after expenses at a placing price of 170p
per Ordinary Share, valuing the company at £49.3 million. A further £4.7 million
was raised on behalf of existing shareholders.
OHM was formed to commercialise technology resulting from extensive academic
research at University of Southampton's prestigious Oceanography Centre. The
technology underwent proof of concept trials in 2000, and the first fully
commercial survey was undertaken by OHM in 2002 on behalf of a major US oil
company, which, in June 2003, entered into a service contract with the company
for the provision of dedicated deep water exploration services.
Dave Pratt, Chief Executive, commented: 'We are delighted that our admission to
AIM has been so successful, and that interest in the company has been so
widespread. Since our inception we have been very fortunate to enjoy such strong
support from our major investors, not least IP2IPO and the University of
Southampton, from whose research we have also benefited greatly. I would
particularly like to thank our staff for their continuing dedication and hard
work. Their commitment makes me very confident that we will be able to deliver
our strategy of becoming the leaders in EM surveying techniques and providing a
high quality service to our clients in the oil and gas exploration and
production industry.'
PLACING STATISTICS
Placing Price 170 pence
Number of new Ordinary Shares placed on behalf
of the Company 6,323,529
Number of existing Ordinary Shares placed on behalf
of Selling Shareholders 2,784,739
Market capitalisation at the Placing Price 49.3 million
Number of Ordinary Shares in issue on Admission 28,997,939
Percentage of enlarged issued share capital subject
to the Placing 31.4%
Gross proceeds of the Placing available to the Company £10.75 million
Net proceeds of the Placing available to the Company £10.0 million
Ends.
For more information contact:
IP2IPO
David Norwood, Chief Executive Officer 020 7071 4348
OHM
Dave Pratt, Chief Executive Officer 0870 429 6583
Buchanan Communications (for IP2IPO)
Tim Anderson, Mark Court, Mary-Jane Johnson 020 7466 5000
Aquila Financial (for OHM)
Peter Reilly, Patrick d'Ancona 020 7849 3319/3326
Notes to editors
IP2IPO
IP2IPO is an intellectual property (IP) company that specialises in
commercialising university technology. The Company has already formed four
long-term partnerships with UK universities and listed on AIM in October 2003.
IP2IPO's first such collaboration was with the University of Oxford. In return
for an investment of £20 million, IP2IPO has acquired 50 per cent of the
University of Oxford's equity in spin-out companies and technology licences
based on intellectual property created at the Chemistry Department until 2015.
In March 2002, IP2IPO Limited entered into a second long-term partnership with
the University of Southampton. Under the terms of this partnership, IP2IPO is
committed to working with the University of Southampton in the identification
and facilitation of spin-out companies from across the University of Southampton
and to investing £5 million in early-stage University of Southampton spin-out
companies over a four year period in return for equity stakes in those
companies. In addition, IP2IPO Limited also received a 20 per cent stake in
Southampton Asset Management Limited, a company that has been formed to hold the
University's equity stakes in its future spin-out companies. The partnership has
a term of at least 25 years.
IP2IPO Limited entered into its third long-term partnership in May 2003 with
King's College London. IP2IPO Limited will work with King's College London to
help identify and progress commercialisation opportunities as well as invest £5
million in King's College London's spin-out companies over a five year period in
return for equity stakes in those companies. In addition, IP2IPO Limited will
receive 20 per cent. of King's College London's equity in spin-out companies and
technology licenses. The partnership has an initial term of 25 years.
In October 2003, IP2IPO announced a fourth partnership with the Centre for Novel
Agricultural Products ('CNAP'), based at the University of York. CNAP is a
flagship research centre that specialises in plant and microbial gene discovery.
Under the terms of the partnership a new company, Amaethon Limited, has been
created which has the right to commercialise CNAP's IP for 25 years. IP2IPO
Limited has committed to invest £1.15m in Amaethon Limited in return for a one
third equity stake in Amaethon Limited (the remaining equity being owned by the
University of York) and will also invest in the spin out companies based on
CNAP's IP which Amaethon Limited creates. For more information see
www.ip2ipo.com.
OHM
OHM's survey method transmits an electromagnetic field into the earth, which is
modified by the presence of subsurface resistive layers. These changes in the
field are measured and the resulting data is processed to provide information on
the resistive structure of the subsurface. Because hydrocarbon accumulations are
generally very resistive, this method can indicate the presence of oil and gas
in deep water situations, and can detect and map the edges of such
accumulations. This reduces the risk of drilling non-commercial exploration
wells and can reduce the need for appraisal drilling, thereby creating
considerable value for oil explorers.
As the company needed to expand into a larger facility, OHM recently moved its
headquarters to new premises on The Offshore Technology Park at Bridge of Don,
Aberdeen, where it will be building dedicated workshops for receiver calibration
and maintenance. It retains a presence in Southampton. For more information see
www.ohmsurveys.com.
The University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a top-ten research university in the UK with a
strong focus on enterprise and commercialisation. It received £11.5 million
from the first Higher Education Innovation Fund in 2001, more than any other UK
university. It has concentrated this money on the support and development of
businesses, the licensing of proprietary Intellectual Property (IP) and the
building of enterprise partnerships with other key research-intensive
universities in the region. Since June 2002, the University has spun out seven
successful businesses with support from IP2IPO, which are in addition to
approximately 40 other companies created from University of Southampton IP since
our first start up, Acoustic Technology Ltd, in 1969. Other successes have
developed from the strong university research base, notably Kymata, which was
sold to Alcatel in 1999. For more information see www.cei.soton.ac.uk.
This information is provided by RNS
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