Insider: major director purchases at a big discount

Leading directors of IP Group (LSE:IPO) have responded to the collapse of takeover talks by spending £180,000 on the FTSE 250-listed shares at a 40% discount to net asset value (NAV).

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Their dealings, including a big purchase by the former boss of 3i Group, were made shortly after the early-stage investor in university and research-based companies backed its standalone prospects following Railpen's decision to walk away from a possible £752 million offer.

IP told shareholders of its “strong conviction” in its strategy and the opportunity to realise substantial value from its portfolio, including through a significant number of potentially value-accretive milestones anticipated over the next 18 months.

The group has backed high-profile companies including FTSE 250-listed Oxford Nanopore and the virtual physical therapy business Hinge Health, which after a founding investment by IP in 2012 listed on the New York Stock Exchange last year.

Other investments have included Monolith AI, a spin-out from Imperial College London and pioneer in applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve complex physics and engineering challenges. It was bought by Nasdaq-listed hyperscaler CoreWeave in October 2025.

The acquisition of biopharma Metsera by Pfizer also highlighted the strength of IP's licensing activities in the obesity drug space, where it holds rights to several promising programmes.

Much of the intellectual property sat within portfolio company Zihipp, which was spun out of Imperial College London in 2019 and was subsequently sold to Metsera in 2023.

IP's share of future revenue streams in connection to Metsera was recently valued at £128.2 million, making this a major contributor to 2025's return to profit and 13% uplift in NAV per share of 13% to 110.4p.

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Railpen's proposal to IP shareholders included a cash portion equivalent to 61p a share, as well as a pro rata share of the company's Oxford Nanopore stake valued at 10.3p, and a contingent value right of up to 11.3p linked to the Metsera interest.

IP said it had sought to engage constructively with the manager of the Railway Pensions Scheme and its partners, recognising its fiduciary duty to maximise value for all shareholders.

This included an extension to the put up or shut up deadline to assess whether an acceptable proposal could be tabled following talks lasting several months.

Last week's purchases by directors took place at prices between 66.2p and 68p and were led by recently appointed chair Michael Queen, who stepped down as 3i CEO in 2012 after 25 years with the private equity company.

He spent £132,000 on IP shares, while chief executive Greg Smith and chief operating officer David Baynes topped up their stakes through dealings worth £30,500 and £18,000 respectively.

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City bank Berenberg highlighted a price target of 100p following annual results in March, which it said were generally a year of progress, including through a reduction in operating costs and a robust year-end cash position of £211 million.

The company also said it entered 2026 with many of its most exciting portfolio companies having raised fresh capital, including to advance efforts in areas such as sustainable aviation fuel, quantum computing, next generation 5G satellite networks and green hydrogen.

The shares rallied to 70p by Friday, up from 34.5p in April 2025 and 58.6p at the end of last year. Berenberg added at the annual results: “We continue to feel that the current 46% discount to NAV is unjustified.”

Big boss bags millions

Next (LSE:NXT) chief executive Simon Wolfson has followed another upgrade to profit guidance by selling more than £26 million of the retailer's shares for a record price.

His dealings at close to 15,700p compare with 919p when he took the helm 25 years ago on 1 August 2001. Wolfson joined Next in 1991 and was appointed retail sales director in 1993.

Based on the disclosure in January's annual report that Wolfson directly owned 985,000 shares, last week's sale reduced his stake by 17% to about £128 million. He had a shareholding of 1.4 million directly owned shares in the 2022/23 annual report.

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The shares fell 1.5% in the minutes following Friday's notification of Wolfson's dealings to stand at 15,545p. However, they later rallied to stand broadly unchanged on the day.

Lipsy founders Jeremy and Marcelle Stakol also raised about £4.6 million by selling shares on Wednesday. Jeremy has been a board member since 2023, having joined the company as Lipsy managing director after the women’s clothing brand was bought by Next in 2008.

The strong run of trading means shares have jumped by about 175% since the start of 2023, a period that has seen Next upgrade profit guidance on 16 occasions.

It bolstered its current year forecast by another 2%, or £25 million to reach £1.24 billion, driven by second-quarter full price sales growth of 9.2%.

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This was well ahead of the company's 4% top line forecast and the City consensus of 5.6% after the retailer benefited from favourable summer weather and the release of pent-up demand in the Middle East and Northern Europe following a weaker first quarter.

International sales were up by 36.9% in the period, which compares with UK online's 5%.

Goldman Sachs and UBS last week lifted their target prices to 17,300p and 16,800p respectively, while Berenberg forecast a further upside of 19% by moving from 18,000p to 18,700p.