Highlights
Financial and operational
- Net assets increased to £263.1m (2011: £221.6m)
- Net cash and deposits: £47.9m (2011: £60.5m)
- Adjusted profit before tax of £46.7m (2011: £0.5m), excluding £6.0m reduction in fair value of Oxford Equity Rights asset (2011: £6.0m)
Portfolio
- Fair value of investment portfolio: £181.8m (2011: £123.8m)
- Continued increase in capital provided to portfolio companies to £26.3m (2011: £14.3m)
- Portfolio realisations: £16.7m (2011: £3.7m)
- Acquisition of Proximagen Group by Upsher-Smith for total proceeds of up to £357m (IP Group initial cash proceeds £15.4m)
- Value of ten largest holdings: £138.2m (2011: £89.0m)
- Group's portfolio companies raised in excess of £110m of new capital (2011: £90m)
- Retroscreen Virology Group and Revolymer admitted to AIM, raising gross proceeds of £15m and £25m respectively at IPO
- Oxford Nanopore Technologies Limited completed £31.4m private financing
Post year-end highlights
- New flagship intellectual property commercialisation agreement signed with The University of Manchester
- Net unrealised fair value increase in the Group's holdings in quoted portfolio companies of £16.0m between 31
December 2012 and 1 March 2013.
Commenting on the Group's annual results, Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer of IP Group, said:
"2012 has been another strong year for IP Group, marked by a number of significant developments across our portfolio, including the admission of Retroscreen Virology and Revolymer to AIM and a significant further financing by Oxford Nanopore Technologies. In line with our commitment to significantly increase our overall rate of investment, the Group committed £26.3m of new funds to portfolio companies during the year. At the same time, we continue to explore alternative sources of innovative intellectual property based opportunities. To this end we have recently signed a commercialisation agreement with Manchester University. 2012 also saw a significant uplift in portfolio realisations and we were particularly pleased to note the acquisition of Proximagen by Upsher-Smith, which represented a 35 times return on the Group's initial investment.
While we have a strong, established portfolio of listed and private companies, I remain confident in the depth of potential throughout our entire portfolio. During 2012 we continued to mature our post-seed businesses and pipeline. The Group's pipeline of early-stage intellectual property opportunities remains strong, with eight new opportunities receiving initial incubation or seed funding during the year.
Despite the continued increase in investment over the year, our balance sheet remains strong, with cash resources of £47.9m, ensuring that we remain well positioned to participate in future financing opportunities.
The progress made across our portfolio during 2012, reflected in the strong growth in the value of the Group's portfolio and net assets, has reinforced our confidence in the quality and commercial potential of the UK's university intellectual property, and we remain well positioned to play a central role in ensuring that the UK's cutting-edge innovations continue to reach the market."
