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("IP Group" or "the Group" or "the Company")
IP Group plc Annual Results Release

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, today announces its annual financial results for the year ended 31 December 2018.

Portfolio highlights

• Fair value of portfolio: £1,128.2m (2017: £1,099.8m)
• Net portfolio loss¹ of £48.4m (2017: gain of £94.2m)
• Portfolio cash realisations: £29.5m (2017: £6.6m)
• Capital provided by IP Group to portfolio companies and projects: £100.9m (2017: £71.2m), with Parkwalk Advisors investing a further £20.3m (2017: £13.4m)
• Total funds raised by portfolio companies of £695m (2017: £315m)
• Oxford Nanopore completed £100m financing round plus £50m investment from NASDAQ-listed Amgen; significant commercial progress
• Ceres Power raised new capital of £74m from financial investors, and new strategic partners Bosch and Weichai Power
• Microbiotica signed microbiome collaboration with Genentech worth up to $534m
• Avacta Group plc signed development alliance with LG Chem Life Sciences worth up to $310m
• Artios Pharma completed £65m funding round
• Ultrahaptics completed £35m funding round
• IP Group Australasia completed its first two spin-out investments

Financial and operational highlights

• Hard NAV¹ £1,217.5m (2017: £1,295.8m)
• Net assets £1,218.2m (2017: £1,508.5m)
• Gross cash and deposits £219.0m (2017: £326.3m)
• Return on Hard NAV¹ of negative £75.6m (2017: positive £64.1m)
• Loss for the year of £90.6m before exceptional goodwill impairment¹ of £203.2m (2017: profit £53.4m; £nil)
• Annual synergies achieved from Touchstone integration of £8m by full year 2020
• US business attracted external funding from privately held US blue-chip family office
• Appointment of Sir Douglas Flint as Chairman and Heejae Chae as Non-Executive Director

Post period end highlights

• Featurespace completed £25.0m funding round
• Technology Transfer Operations transferred back to Imperial College; resulting in annual cost savings of c.£3m

¹ Alternative performance measure, see Note 27 for definition and reconciliation to IFRS primary statements.

Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive of IP Group, , said: “2018 has been a year of consolidation for the Group as we finalised the integration of Touchstone Innovations and identified significant cost synergies that are now starting to come through. We remain excited by the enlarged portfolio which we continue to believe will deliver significant benefits for all stakeholders.

Material progress was made on a number of fronts in 2018, notably the maturation of our model and portfolio with cash realisations rising more than fourfold to £29.5m while our portfolio companies raised £695m, more than double the prior year. While market conditions for AIM-listed small-cap companies were challenging, there was significant commercial progress among many of the key companies in our portfolio, now valued at £1.1bn.

We retain a high level of confidence in our portfolio, with many of our companies due to reach material inflexion points this year, and the benefits that will accrue sustainably to shareholders in the years ahead.

For more information, please contact:

IP Group plc Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer Greg Smith, Chief Financial Officer Liz Vaughan-Adams, Communications	www.ipgroupplc.com +44 (0) 20 7444 0050   +44 (0) 20 7444 0062/+44 (0) 7979 853802
Charlotte Street Partners David Gaffney Andrew Wilson	+44 (0) 7854 609998 +44 (0) 7810 636995

Further information on IP Group is available on our website: www.ipgroupplc.com

Notes

(i) Nature of announcement

This Annual Results Release was approved by the directors on 25 March 2019.

The financial information set out in this Annual Results Release does not constitute the company's statutory accounts for 2018 or 2017. Statutory accounts for the years ended 31 December 2018 and 31 December 2017 have been reported on by the Independent Auditor. The Independent Auditor’s Reports on the Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2018 and 2017 were unqualified, did not draw attention to any matters by way of emphasis, and did not contain a statement under 498(2) or 498(3) of the Companies Act 2006. Statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2017 have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 December 2018 will be delivered to the Registrar following the Company's annual general meeting.

The 2018 Annual Report and Accounts will be published in April 2019 and a copy will be posted on the Group's website (www.ipgroupplc.com). In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.1 a copy of the Annual Report and Accounts will also be submitted to the National Storage Mechanism on or around this date and will be available for inspection at: www.Hemscott.com/nsm.do from that time.

Throughout this Annual Results Release the Group’s holdings in portfolio companies reflect the undiluted beneficial equity interest excluding debt, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

(ii) Forward looking statements

This Annual Report and Accounts may contain forward looking statements. These statements reflect the Board’s current view, are subject to a number of material risks and uncertainties and could change in the future. Factors which could cause or contribute to such changes include, but are not limited to, the general economic climate and market conditions, as well as specific factors relating to the financial or commercial prospects or performance of individual companies within the Group’s portfolio.

Annual Results can be viewed in the PDF file format