Frontier IP Group plc has announced the sale of 493,550 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of portfolio company Exscientia plc for net proceeds of approximately $3.22 million. The sale, which took place between 17 November 2023 and 29 February 2024, generated an estimated realized gain of £0.24 million for Frontier IP for the financial year to 30 June 2024. Following the sale, Frontier IP no longer holds an interest in ADSs in Exscientia.
The net proceeds from the sale of ADSs in Exscientia will be used for general working capital purposes and to provide further support to the Group's existing portfolio companies. In total, the Group sold a total of 1,564,800 Exscientia ADSs between 10 January 2022 and 29 February 2024 for net proceeds of approximately £14.0 million. The original cost for these shares was less than £2,000.
Neil Crabb, Chief Executive of Frontier IP, highlighted Exscientia as an excellent exemplar of their business model, based on founding equity in companies originating from universities with world-leading technology, realizing that equity as its value builds and becomes clearer. He expressed the Group's anticipation of demonstrating further success with companies in the current portfolio.
Frontier IP unites science and commerce by identifying strong intellectual property and accelerating its development through a range of commercialization services. The Group aims to build and grow a portfolio of equity stakes and license income by taking an active involvement in spin-out companies, including support for fundraising and collaboration with relevant industry partners at an early stage of development.
Exscientia uses artificial intelligence ("AI") to modernize the way new medicines are discovered and developed, aiming to deliver medicines faster than industry standards. The company has built a complete end-to-end solution of AI and experimental technologies for target identification, drug candidate design, translational models, and patient selection. ADSs of Exscientia trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, with each ADS representing one ordinary share in Exscientia.