Fusion IP to raise £20m as it signs up new universities

FUSION IP is to raise £20m to support further investment into university spin-out businesses.

The Sheffield-based company, an AIM-listed business that invests in turning university research into viable businesses, has also signed agreements with the University of Nottingham and Swansea University.

Fusion IP said that further university agreements were likely to follow and the £20m would be raised through the issue of 36m shares at 55p each to existing and institutional shareholders.

The Company had £4m of cash at the end of January and said it does not expect any material changes to the value of its portfolio in the first six months of the year.

It said that many of its portfolio companies are now well funded and therefore only limited uplifts are expected in the second half of the year as net asset value is based primarily on the last funding round.
 
Commenting on the placing, David Baynes, chief executive, said: “We are very pleased to announce this significant additional investment in the Company, in a funding round which includes all our current institutional shareholders, as well as adding a number of new institutions. Combined with our new university agreements, this is clearly a significant advance for Fusion IP.
 
“Nottingham is one of the UK’s top 10 research-intensive universities, with centres of excellence in aerospace, advanced manufacturing, energy and biomedical imaging. We are also delighted to be expanding our operation in Wales, with the addition of Swansea University into the portfolio.”
 
“We remain fully committed to the commercialisation of IP that is generated out of the UK’s leading universities and believe we are now well placed to further increase our pipeline of companies and to maximize the potential returns from our increasingly mature portfolio.”
 
Chairman Doug Liversidge, added: “This is great news for the company. The management team has done an excellent job in growing Fusion into one of the leading IP commercialisation companies in the UK and the proposed placing and MOU agreements cement this position. We look forward to continuing this growth over the coming years.”