Ceres signs agreement with Bosch; £9m investment

RNS Number : 3948Y

IP Group PLC

21 August 2018

 

FOR RELEASE ON

21 August 2018

IP Group plc - Portfolio company Ceres Power announces a strategic collaboration with Bosch and a £9m equity investment

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, is pleased to note that its portfolio company Ceres Power Holdings plc ("Ceres" or "the Company"), has announced a strategic collaboration with Robert Bosch GmbH ("Bosch") as well as a £9.0m strategic equity investment by Bosch into Ceres.

IP Group currently holds a direct undiluted beneficial stake of 22.4% in Ceres, developer of the SteelCell®, a world-leading, low cost Solid Oxide Fuel Cell technology.

Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive of IP Group, said: "We're delighted with the progress made by Ceres since we first invested in the company in 2012. The Ceres team has made excellent headway and the company is extremely well positioned in this growing market."

Today's collaboration with Bosch will further develop Ceres' technology, establish low-volume production at Bosch, and enable the future scale up and mass manufacture of the SteelCell® for use in multiple applications including small power stations to be used in cities, factories, data centres and charge points for electric vehicles.

The agreements provide very significant staged revenues to Ceres through technology transfer and licensing and longer-term royalties on 5kW SteelCell® stacks, as well as initial engineering services. The initial value to Ceres Power to 2020 will be c. £20.0m, subject to performance criteria.

As part of the deal, Bosch will make a c.£9.0m equity investment in Ceres by subscribing for 5,973,660 new Ordinary Shares at 150.8p per Ordinary Share, equating to approximately 4.4% of the expanded issued share capital.

Earlier this month, Ceres signed a new partnership with Nissan to further develop fuel cell technology for EV applications which saw Ceres and The Welding Institute awarded a total of £8.0m UK government funding through the Advanced Propulsion Centre for the project. That followed news of a strategic collaboration with China's Weichai Power comprising both product development (for China's fast-growing electric powered bus market) as well as an equity investment. Last month, Ceres also announced a significantly oversubscribed £20.0m fundraising.

For more information, please contact:

IP Group plc	www.ipgroupplc.com
Alan Aubrey, Chief Executive Officer Greg Smith, Chief Financial Officer Liz Vaughan-Adams, Communications	[phone] [phone]/[phone]
Charlotte Street Partners
Andrew Wilson	[phone]
Martha Walsh	[phone]

Notes for editors

About IP Group

IP Group is a leading intellectual property commercialisation company which focuses on evolving great ideas, mainly from its partner universities, into world-changing businesses. The Group has pioneered a unique approach to developing these ideas and the resulting businesses by providing access to business building expertise, capital (through its 100%-owned FCA-authorised subsidiaries IP Capital and Parkwalk Advisors), networks, recruitment and business support. IP Group has a strong track record of success and its portfolio comprises holdings in early-stage to mature businesses across life sciences and technology. IP Group is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

Group holdings in portfolio companies reflect the undiluted beneficial equity interest excluding debt, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com.

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