BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - Imperial College will become the first university in Europe to float off its technology transfer office. Imperial Innovations Group plc has raised £25 million (US$46.3 million) through a placing, subject to completing an initial public offering on the Alternative Investment Market, which will raise a further £1.5 million.

The placing consists of 6.8 million shares at £3.65 each, while a further 410,958 shares are available in the public offering. This will give Imperial Innovations a market capitalization of £181.3 million on admission to AIM on July 31.

Imperial College will retain a 59.1 percent stake and is subject to a lock-up for the first year after flotation, and to the condition that it does not reduce its shareholding below 50.1 percent in the two years following.

The technology transfer company has an agreement with Imperial College, sealed in April 2005, giving it exclusive rights to Imperial's research until 2020. At the end of May, there were 90 licensing agreements and 58 spin-out companies in Imperial Innovation's portfolio, with an unaudited value of £31.5 million. Around 40 percent of the value is attributable to holdings in one company, Ceres Power Holdings.

Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations said the funds would provide increased ability to maximize the value of the technology it spins out. "We can make larger investments and more investments," she told BioWorld International. "We would like to take a larger share in investment rounds, but we are still seeking to co-invest."

While the UK government is encouraging universities to commercialize publicly funded research, they do not have the skills or the money to fully exploit their intellectual property. Some have signed exclusive deals with quoted technology management companies such as IP Group plc and Amphion Innovations plc, while Sheffield University has gone part way down the route pioneered by Imperial Innovations, spinning out its life sciences research through BioFusion plc, of Sheffield, UK, an AIM-quoted company designed for this purpose.

No such quoted technology commercialization firms exist elsewhere in Europe. Earlier this month, the European Investment Fund announced the formation of a £30 million venture capital fund with IP Group to invest in university spin-outs and said it intended to negotiate more funds based on this model.