Imperial Innovations steams ahead with £30M fundraising

Imperial Innovations Group plc, the technology transfer commercialisation arm of Imperial College London, is stepping up the pace of its development with a £30 million placing with existing investors. The company placed 8.1 million shares at £3.70 per share, a small discount to the market price of £3.75.

The new shares, accounting for around 14.1 per cent of the enlarged share capital, were placed with institutional investors, including Imperial College, which took up 810,811 shares. When the deal closes the university will own 52.3 percent of Imperial Innovations, and has an undertaking there will be no share issues that dilute its holding below 50 percent without prior approval.

At the same time Imperial Innovations revealed it has reduced its holding in the fuel cell specialist Ceres Power Holdings plc, which in July 2006 represented 46 percent of the total value of Imperial Innovation’s portfolio. By July 2007, new investments reduced this to 27 percent. On 15 and 16 October 2007, Imperial Innovations sold 1.1 million shares, or 21.4 per cent of the shares in Ceres Power it held at 31 July 2007, raising £3.5 million. It now owns 6.99 per cent of Ceres.

Following the placing and the sale of the Ceres shares Imperial Innovations has £50 million cash that it plans to use to accelerate the process of commercial exploitation, increase the quantity and value of licensing deals, accelerate the development of spin-outs and maximise the value of its holdings in them.

At 31 July 2007, Imperial Innovations had interests in 74 spin-outs valued at £55.8 million, up from 66 holdings worth £33.5 million a year earlier. In total the company invested £13.1 million in the year to 31 July 2007, as it put the £26 million raised in its July 2006 initial public offering to work. This included investments in 13 new start-ups.