Ip Share Discussion Threads

[cerrito] 19/6/2020 09:28

Neither Flint nor Aubrey made any comment on current possible changes in the shareholder register.
On AVCT I am new here but rather surprised that they did not have board representation on a company they helped found and still held 15%. That said if they did have board representation they would have been insiders I assume and thus would have been barred from selling just before such an announcement but would have been permitted to sell after. Perhaps my logic is wrong.
In terms of the company buying the shares of Invesco and Landsdowne or some of them ,that seems to make sense though would depend on their pipeline of further investment opportunities of which nothing was said.
Will be interesting to read the q&a when released.

[p1nkfish] 19/6/2020 09:20

My memory is not perfect but RMPP rings a bell. Royal Mail Pension Plan?

I may be wrong, anyone else confirm?

[bamboo2] 19/6/2020 08:40

Quite a few millions have changed hands over the last six months, and while we know the sellers, Invesco and Landsdowne, we do not know who the buyer is at the moment, afaik. Anyone know if this was discussed at any point during the presentation?

[p1nkfish] 19/6/2020 00:11

Share buybacks work. Study total shareholder yield and you will see.

If IPO acted legally they can't get price sensitive information from a holding that is not made available to all other shareholders st the same time unless they are on the BOD. They were not on the AVCT BOD.

As for the buyback IPO should now know the attitude of some holders who are in favour of the idea. If you are not happy, tell them, no good posting here.

[p1nkfish] 18/6/2020 18:43

August will be an interesting news release imho.

[p1nkfish] 18/6/2020 18:43

Yep. Makes sense to me anyway. Return to shareholders, clears out the overhang at a good discount etc.

Especially useful if IPO expect decent growth from maturing NAV constituents as it can compound nicely as a sensible capital allocation at relatively low risk.

What's not to like? Not as if there are 100's of decent start-ups to seed at low capital. Look how many they would need at £5M each to start. Shed loads.

[bamboo2] 18/6/2020 18:13

p1nkfish, A buyback would make sense to me. It's not as though they would be using borrowing to finance it, as in some other situations.

Some of the listed constituents are starting reversals of their own, which is another positive.

[bjfanc] 18/6/2020 17:57

So roughly 3% per annum fee to run this investment fund. Based on employee expenses over current market value.

[cerrito] 18/6/2020 17:23

PO
Your 302.
Director remuneration is on page 103 of the AR.
The Chairman does very well at £175k last year so I trust he is giving/has given plenty of value added-depends how involved he was with the restructure of the shareholder base.
I see that the 2019 bonuses for all exec directors were up last year and total remuneration of CEO increased from £413k to £498k which is a decent increase in a not very stellar year.
Total employee costs in 2019 were £19.6m down from £21.3m in 2018 with a decline in average number of employees down from 167 to 130./
Too bad there could be no normal AGM as it would have been good to see what they are doing to narrow the discount.
Given that the two largest shareholders Invesco and Landsdowne are seen as potential sellers and the current market value of their holdings are £95m and £55m respectively there is a sporting chance that the discount will widen. Chance for the Chairman to earn his fees.

[dexdringle] 18/6/2020 17:08

They need to pay a divi of at least 10p here to demonstrate that the point of this thing is to return value to the investors as and when cash is crystallised. Otherwise it is just a plaything for the directors and a vehicle to fund their lifestyles....

[bamboo2] 18/6/2020 15:43

Didn't get to see the whole webinar, as was late, but some interesting points made.

Good to see management acknowledge the poor timing on the avct exit.
A share buyback could be on the table.
Very positive on CWR, Oxford Nanopore, Feature Space and Inivata.

[bjfanc] 18/6/2020 11:59

Yep you'll see that most of the time the management appoints themselves onto the boards of the company invested. If they are working on beneath of IPO, then where do the shares options and salary go. Nice earner.

[p1nkfish] 18/6/2020 11:57

All resolutions passed by > 96% on everything.
Lowest was 96.5% for one Director.

[p1nkfish] 18/6/2020 09:58

Return on cash is very poor. Great balance sheet, growth not immediately obvious but promoted as growth. A bit schizophrenic.

[pierre oreilly] 18/6/2020 09:51

PH, It should be valued at a fair discount to assets at £1.50/1.60 imv, with assets at 1.80 by my guestimating.

The reason it's not is because, although everything in the garden is rosy, shareholders end up asking, 'great, but what's in it for me?'. The answer is, even on today's bullish write up on how everything is going is, unfortunately, nowt.

It isn't being run for the benefit of shareholders. We'll soon see who benefits from all the positives when the bonuses are announced quietly in the annual report.

The usual response to this is 'I want all the cash used to fund new companies and keep the business going'. Well, Look at their typical investment, about a million. So that 250 prospects could be invested in. They'll probably find less than 20/30 to fund, leaving a big surplus of cash which they want to hang on to, and bolox to the shareholders, they aren't getting any.

I invested quite a bit here because of my assessment of the 70% discount to assets, but it's working out to be completely dead money, and the shame is from my pov, it really needn't be. Some of the cash needs to go to shareholders one way or the other, otherwise it's a totally pointless investment. The cash is worth three times outside the company as it is inside, it's madness imv.

[brucie5] 18/6/2020 09:21

But on 250m it could even snap up several of the most exciting small tech situations on the market, with markets/clients all ready in the bag, like SCE at a mere 23m. So I sincerely hope their folio of Heinz 57 contain some genuinely world beating companies, on the cusp of profitability, rather than many years and fund raises away!

[phurley] 18/6/2020 09:15

Thanks mateIm a buyer

[brucie5] 18/6/2020 09:15

250m on a macap of 655m is 38% cash, or 23p on the share price of 60p.

Leaves 405m of value for all the rest.

Hmm. I can only think that the market don't know how to value this because:

1. it's too complex to understand. Even NANO is impossible to value without more precise metrics around turnover/profit etc.
2. little clarity around their approach, particularly given the selling of AVCT at precisely the wrong moment. Surely the greater gains are to be made by keeping hold of the winners!
3. What is the purpose of all that cash. How will it add to shareholder value.

[bamboo2] 18/6/2020 09:11

phurley,

Forced sellers, WIM, Invesco, Lansdowne.

Up until last summer [2019] together they held about 50% of the IPO shares.

WIM's chaotic selling of IP Group, its constituents, and other holdings created a vicious circle of falling valuations leading to large scale redemption's across the three organisations.

The good news is that management has had to redirect the co toward a self financing model.

[phurley] 18/6/2020 08:58

Pretty solid statement.Why is this not 80p already???

[bamboo2] 18/6/2020 08:01

IP Group plc - AGM statement

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Company" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, issues the following statement ahead of its Annual General Meeting which will take place at 11am today. This statement provides an update on the Group's progress for the period since 31 December 2019.

Business and operational update

IP Group's day-to-day operations have been largely unaffected in the year to date. The majority of the team is operating effectively remotely, in line with the latest public health guidance, to ensure the continued health and wellbeing of our team in each of the geographies in which we operate.

The Group remains well financed and, as at 31 May 2020, had gross cash of GBP256.6 million following record realisations in the year to date of GBP113.8 million compared with GBP79.5 million for the whole of 2019. The management team remains focused on generating a positive return on net assets. As described in our 2019 Annual Results statement, achieving portfolio self-sustainability through realisations from our maturing companies and increasingly concentrating resources on our 'focus' companies, as well as prudent cost management, remain key objectives in 2020.

Portfolio update

The Group's portfolio includes holdings in 57 'focus' companies across life sciences, technology and cleantech, representing over 87% of the portfolio value at 31 December 2019. In the year to date, the Group has invested GBP27.7 million in 30 portfolio companies and made cash realisations of GBP113.8 million . Management is currently undertaking its regular fair value assessment exercise as part of its half-yearly results processes and looks forward to updating shareholders in August.

The Group continues to assess and respond to the impacts of COVID-19 on its portfolio, which includes world-changing businesses that we believe will deliver impact and significant benefits to society at large. While the year to date has undoubtedly been a period of significant change and we have experienced volatility, particularly in the capital markets, we remain positive on our portfolio's prospects. Our team continues to work with our individual portfolio companies as they assess and mitigate potential impacts on their businesses, respond to opportunities, and manage their capital and resource requirements. We are proud of the many IP Group companies, past and present, that are contributing to the response to Covid-19, including Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Ieso Digital Health, Oxehealth, Navenio and MobilION Systems.

Significant developments in the Group's portfolio since 31 December 2019 include:

-- Ceres Power Holdings plc : IP Group announced it had sold approximately 19.25 million ordinary shares in Ceres Power across two transactions, raising net proceeds of approximately GBP73 million.

-- Featurespace Ltd : Completed a GBP30 million fundraising led by Merian Chrysalis Investment Company Ltd and also included further funding from existing investors including IP Group, Highland Europe, MissionOG, TTV Capital and Invoke Capital Partners. IP Group has an undiluted holding of 19.7% in Featurespace. The directors expect that this transaction will result in an unrealised fair value gain to the Group of approximately GBP10 million compared with Featurespace's last financing round and that the Group's holding will be valued at approximately GBP40 million.

-- Inivata Ltd : Formed a strategic collaboration with NeoGenomics, Inc for the commercialisation of its InVisionFirst(R)-Lung liquid biopsy test in the United States. As part of the collaboration, NeoGenomics will make a $25 million equity investment in Inivata to take a minority shareholding with an option to buy the company outright. Following completion of the initial equity investment, IP Group has an undiluted holding of 25.7% in Inivata. The directors expect that this transaction will result in an unrealised fair value gain to the Group of approximately GBP7.0 million and that the Group's holding will be valued at approximately GBP31.0 million.

-- Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd : Completed a fund raising of an additional GBP48.4 million of new capital from both new and existing shareholders in EMEA, US and Asia in May, in addition to the GBP29.3 million of capital raised in January. Following these transactions and a GBP22.0 million partial sale of its holding in January, IP Group has an undiluted holding of 15.9% in the company. Oxford Nanopore announced recently t hat it is in advanced development of a new generation of end-to-end test (assay) for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The LamPORE assay is designed to be rapid, low cost, and scalable to cater to on-demand analysis of smaller sample numbers, to very large numbers of samples.

For more information, please contact...

[p1nkfish] 15/6/2020 22:00

To have confidence in an an uptrend and that trend is likely to have legs. I will have an idea before 77p deopending on rate of change of price & volume combined with my own "feeling" for sentiment. Not too scientific but has worked for me elsewhere.

[brucie5] 15/6/2020 21:44

Pink/bamboo, what's your chart objective?