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(Alliance News) - Intellectual property-based business developer IP Group PLC said it generated GBP22.4 million from the partial sale of its stake in Ceres Power Holdings PLC to Robert Bosch GmbH.
The balance of IP Group's holding is GBP75.3 million based on Ceres's Tuesday closing price and it holds a 14% stake, down from 19%. IP Group's shares were up 2.8% at 69.30 pence.
IP Group Chief Executive Alan Aubrey said: "We are pleased to support this strategic transaction to facilitate Bosch's increased holding which we firmly believe is in the interests of the company and of all stakeholders. We're delighted to see such continued strong global interest in Ceres Power, which follows another impressive year of commercial success. Since IP Group's first investment in Ceres in 2012, the company has gone from strength to strength and is a great example of how we've helped to develop and support a world-leading company based on scientific research carried out in the UK."
Earlier on Wednesday, Ceres reported that Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH had substantially increased its stake in the UK fuel-cell company in a GBP77 million investment.
Engineering firm Bosch will lift its stake in Ceres to approximately 18% from around 4% previously.
Bosch has subscribed for 11.9 million new Ceres shares at 320 pence each, raising GBP38 million for Ceres.
At the same time, via a reverse accelerated bookbuild, Robert Bosch has purchased approximately 12.3 million existing Ceres shares at the same price. Ceres won't receive any money from this part of the investment, as it involves existing shares.
The 320p per share price represents a 7.8% discount to Ceres's closing price on Tuesday, but a 30% premium to Ceres's average share price over the past three months ended Tuesday. The stock was up 16% at 401.00p in London on Wednesday afternoon.
The reverse accelerated bookbuild was completed Wednesday, conducted on Bosch's behalf by sole bookrunner Deutsche Bank AG.
Bosch will have around 30.1 million Ceres shares in total or 17.8% of the enlarged share capital.
Ceres plans to use the funds raised from the Bosch subscription to find more uses for solid oxide fuel cells and to diversify its research and development activity with the goal of finding possible electrolysis applications for Ceres' technology.
Bosch and Ceres signed a strategic agreement in August 2018, under which they have been collaborating to develop fuel-cell stacks for use in stationary power. This allowed Bosch, in late 2019, to start initial low-volume pilot systems in Germany. The higher Ceres stake aims to support this collaboration between the firms with the goal of "future scale up and mass manufacture of the Ceres SteelCell for multiple applications".
Phil Caldwell, chief executive of Ceres, said: "We welcome this investment by Bosch which is further endorsement of our technology and the work done by our respective teams over the past year. Our successful partnership with some of the world's leading [original equipment manufactures], including Bosch, has seen us develop fuel cell applications for home, commercial and heavy transportation applications and establish Ceres as one of the leaders in the fuel cell industry.
"This new investment will allow us to build upon this strong position and grow the business further into new areas which are needed for the energy transition such as electrolysis for hydrogen and synthetic e-fuels and developing higher power applications while also continuing to focus on the commercialisation of our core power systems."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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