14th May 2015 07:32
LONDON (Alliance News) - IP Group PLC Thursday revealed plans to raise equity and deepen its exposure to companies spun out from the University of Oxford in the future.
IP Group, which works with universities to commercialise intellectual property, said it is acquiring a strategic shareholding in Oxford Sciences Innovation PLC, a company formed to be the university's preferred partner for at least 15 years.
Oxford Sciences Innovation's role will be to provide capital to, and develop, spin-out companies based on research from the university's Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division and its Medical Sciences Division.
IP Group said it will commit GBP40 million for an initial stake of 17.9% in the company as part of an overall GBP210 million fundraising backed by Invesco Asset Management Limited, Lansdowne Partners (UK) LLP, Oxford University Endowment Fund, the Wellcome Trust and Woodford Investment Management LLP.
According to IP Group, Oxford Sciences Innovation could look to raise a total of GBP300 million through a "second close" of up to GBP90 million later in 2015.
The acquisition of the 17.9% stake is being funded with the issuance of up to 26.9 million new shares in IP Group, which will be placed in an accelerated bookbuild by investment bank and stockbroker Numis Securities Ltd. The new shares are equivalent to about 5% of IP Group's existing shares in issue. The placing, which is yet to be priced, will also be used to provide capital to new and existing spin-out companies and to expand IP Group's access to technology from its partner universities and other research intensive institutions.
"IP Group has a long and successful history with the University through which we have backed approximately 20 spin-out companies to date including Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd, Velocys PLC, Summit Therapeutics PLC and Genomics Ltd," IP Group Chief Executive Alan Aubrey said in a statement.
"Going forward, the group will have exposure to a much wider range of scientific research from Oxford and we are excited to be continuing on this journey together with OSI and the other cornerstone investors," Aubrey said.
David Norwood, the chairman of Oxford Sciences Innovation, said the news creates the opportunity to "turn world-leading science into market-leading companies".
IP Group's stake in venture capital fund Technikos LLP, which specialises in medical technologies in their early years, gives it access to the University of Oxford's Institute of Biomedical Engineering. IP Group and Technikos have a commercialisation alliance.
The venture capital fund has a commercialisation agreement with the Institute of Biomedical Engineering until October 2022, while IP Group's original 15-year contract with the University's Department of Chemistry is due to expire in November 2015. At the end of the 15-year contract, future spin-outs from the chemistry department will fall under the agreement with Oxford Sciences Innovation in full, IP Group said.
IP Group shares were down 1% at 209.10 pence on Thursday morning.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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