Portfolio Update

RNS Number : 8317A

Intl. Biotechnology Trust PLC

25 March 2013

INTERNATIONAL BIOTECHNOLOGY TRUST PLC

Portfolio Update

The Board of International Biotechnology Trust plc (the "Company") notes several changes in valuation to investments held within the unquoted portfolio which have been incorporated into the Net Asset Value ("NAV") as of 22 March 2013. These changes relate to four investments already exited for which the Company retains rights to receive future contingent performance-based payments. In total these valuation changes increase the NAV by £3.6m or 6.5p per share.

The Investment Manager receives regular updates on the progress of each of the programmes being developed within the agreements governing these contingent performance-based payment situations and makes recommendations to the Board as to the net present value of these payments. These valuations are regularly reviewed and adjusted for any material change in the circumstances of any of the programmes in real-time. Under International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRS'), these latest valuation changes will be incorporated into the Company's half yearly report to 28 February 2013.

The Investment Manager notes that across the biotechnology industry in recent years there has been a trend towards structuring acquisitions so that the acquiree and acquirer share more of the risk (as well as the potential future rewards) of the further development or commercialisation of a drug candidate, medical device or technology platform. This means that instead of a single cash or stock-based payment for the acquisition of a portfolio company at exit - venture capital investors are seeing more instances of exit agreements where upfront payments are combined with deferred development and/or sales-based milestone payments. This has meant that over time, the Company has increasingly held a number of investments that, while exited and provided a return on exit, have contingent payments linked to future performance.

The total potential value of these contingent payments has been reported in each of the company's six monthly accounts but to date only a very small amount has been recognised in the NAV. Our Investment Manager is in dialogue with the valuation department of our Auditor have undertaken significant work to assess the value of the contingent payments so that they may be incorporated into the NAV in line with our stated policy to assign "fair value" to the Company's investments. The changes reported in this announcement reflect this work.

The valuation changes are as follows:

ESBATech, which was exited in September 2009. The new valuation of contingent receipts is £864k which represents 15% of the total possible contingent receipts of £5.8m. The previous value was £9k.

EUSA Pharma, which was exited in June 2012. The new valuation of escrow and contingent receipts is £676k, which represents 74% of the total possible escrow and contingent receipts of £913k. The previous value was £0.2m

Ikano Therapeutics, which was exited in June 2010. The new valuation of contingent receipts is £1.6m, which represents 10% of total possible contingent receipts of £16m. The previous value was zero.

Itero, which was exited in June 2011. The new valuation of contingent receipts is £841k, which represents 19% of possible contingent receipts of £4.5m. The previous value was £174k.