IP Group news 0

Substantial growth in value and scale of portfolio

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO), the UK’s leading university intellectual property commercialisation company, today announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2007.

Financial highlights

• Strong rise in net assets: £213.8m (2006: £179.2m)
• Substantial increase in fair value of equity investments in portfolio: £126.1m (2006: £87.4m)
• Profit after taxation: £30.5m (2006: £40.1m)
• Cash invested in portfolio companies: £6.8m (2006: £8.5m)
• Cash proceeds from sales of equity investments: £8.0m (2006: £3.1m)
• Cash balance at 31 December 2007: £46.0m (2006: £51.3m)

Portfolio and Operational highlights

• Portfolio of companies in which the Group has a fair value holding of £3m or above at year end expanded to 12 (2006: 8 companies)
• Over £70m of capital raised by portfolio companies during the year, of which over £30m was raised in private financing rounds
• Successful AIM flotation of two portfolio companies, as well as successful reversals on to AIM and PLUS Markets of two portfolio companies
• IP Venture Fund completes second closing with total commitments of £31m and makes 11 investments into Group portfolio companies
• Significant operational and developmental advances made by portfolio companies during 2007

Commenting on the Group’s preliminary results, Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive of IP Group, said:

"IP Group’s unparalleled access to commercialisable university intellectual property and proven business building methodology has resulted in a substantial improvement in the value, quality and scale of our portfolio of companies during 2007.

The portfolio of companies in which the Group has a holding worth above £3m has grown and this is backed by a large and diverse pool of other opportunities. Together with its strong cash position, the Group is well positioned to realise significant shareholder value over the long term."

For more information, please contact:.

IP Group plc
Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer	020 7444 0050
Mike Townend, Director of Capital Markets	020 7444 0050
Greg Smith, Group Financial Controller	020 7444 0050
Liz Vaughan - Adams, Communications	020 7444 0062 / 07979 853 802

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

Financial Dynamics
Ben Atwell, Rob Bailhache, Sanjeev Pandya	020 7831 3113

Preliminary results can be viewed in the PDF file format (PDF 244 KB opens in a new window)