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Frontier IP unveils £2.49mln equity raise as it reports full year growth in portfolio

Published: 05:18 15 Nov 2018 EST

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The fundraising was oversubscribed

Intellectual property firm Frontier IP Group Plc (LON:FIPP) said it has raised £2.49mln in a share placing as it reported a 34% increase in the fair value of its portfolio companies for the year.

The company placed more than 3.8 million new ordinary shares at an issue price of 65p each. Chairman Andrew Richmond said the fundraising was oversubscribed with strong support from existing and new investors. Proceeds will be used to build out the core Frontier IP team and strengthen the working capital of the company.

READ: Frontier IP welcomes latest funding by Nandi Proteins

“This fundraising will ensure we can take advantage of future opportunities as they arise,” said chief executive Neil Crabb.

“We are confident we are set to make significant progress as the group and its portfolio companies develop."

Full-year portfolio and revenue growth

In a separate annual results statement, the company said its fair value of portfolio companies rose to £9.04mln in the year to 30 June 2018 from £6.73mln a year ago.

The group said significant contributions came from food technology firm Nandi Proteins Ltd and water contamination testing business Molendotech.

READ: Frontier IP hails new partnership for investee company, Molendtech

Key additions to the portfolio included Cambridge Raman Imaging –an ultra-fast laser development company spun out of the University of Cambridge’s Cambridge Graphene Centre – and Amprologix, an antibiotics maker spun out the University of Plymouth.

READ: Frontier IP takes stake in antibiotics developer spun out from University of Plymouth

 

Total revenue increased 2% to £2.36mln, reflecting an unrealised profit on the revaluation of investments of £2.06mln.

Pre-tax profit dropped 28% to £902,000 but this was primarily due to an increase in staff and premises costs.

Frontier IP said it has had an encouraging start to the new financial year with a high level of activity.

 “While technology development is an inherently uncertain process, we are optimistic our core portfolio will show another year of good progress and growth,” said chairman Andrew Richmond.

“We continue to develop further partnerships with industry.”

Takeover deal between portfolio companies 

The group also announced that part-owned drug maker Exscientia Limited has agreed to buy part-owned Kinetic Discovery Limited.

Frontier IP, which has 4.1% stake in Exscientia and owns 5% of Kinetic, said the deal allows Exscientia to create an artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery company to “go rapidly from gene to clinical candidate for any druggable target of choice”.