IP group raises $164 million

IP commercialization company IP Group plc (LSE:IPO) raised L100 million ($164 million) through the sale of 60.6 million shares at 165p in a bumped-up placing and open offer underwritten by Numis. The price is an 8% discount to IP Group's close of 179.9p on Jan. 22, before the company proposed to raise up to L75 million ($123 million) in the offering. IP Group manages and funds the commercialization of IP generated from its partnered research institutions in the U.K.

Last month, the company told BioCentury that the capital raising and acquisition of the 79.9% of fellow IP commercialization company Fusion IP plc (LSE:FIP) it does not already own gives IP Group wider access to U.K. IP and the capital necessary to expand its biotech portfolio and U.S. business (see BioCentury, Jan. 27). ...