■ Private placing for Oxford Nanopore
■ Retroscreen Virology floated on Aim
■ IP's shares jump threefold in seven months
Intellectual property developer IP Group has announced successful fundraisings for two of its portfolio companies - a £31.4m private placing for Oxford Nanopore and a £15m Aim flotation for Retroscreen Virology.
However, broker Numis Securities believes that the uplift from the Retroscreen flotation has been offset by a decline in cash following IP's £6.7m additional investment in the Oxford Nanopore placement – leaving its overall fair value estimate for IP unchanged at 129p a share. After throwing in IP's cash, Numis calculated this on the basis that Oxford Nanopore is worth 69p a share, IP's listed portfolio is worth 20p a share, with a further 11p a share coming from the unlisted book. With the shares at 144p, however, the broker's recommendation has been downgraded from buy to hold.
