|TECHNOLOGY FINANCE|

 
|ICM KNOW HOW|

Intellectual property assets are indeed key factors in technology-driven M&A deals particularly in IP-intensive industries, such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical technology, mechatronics, materials, chemicals and ICT.


IP assets are a component of virtually every deal and drive many medium-high technology merger or acquisition strategies. Often one of the main rationale for acquiring a strategic target company, and/or reinforcing the purchase price, is the “proprietary” intellectual property (“IP”) owned or under development.


ICM Advisors (ICM) as a well-established advisory firm in value management of Intangibles/IP assets believes that investors should focus more on the strategic and financial value of this assets class by identifying and leverage the opportunities in their current investment portfolio or in building a new one. There are also risk issues not only from the legal point of view but from strategic and financial point of view that need to be continuously monitored.


ICM has been one of the first firms in Europe to develop a full-service practice for valuating, managing and monetizing Technology & IP portfolios and has been involved in high profile projects in this area for over 13 years. Financial expertise is a core competence of ICM and it is integrated with its specialization on Intangibles Assets (IA) and Brand/Technology/IP Value Management.


Since the foundation Technology & IP Finance practice has been the focus of ICM, hundreds of IA and IP assets valuation and valorization have been executed for:

  • licensing;
  • fund raising;
  • equity position in new venture;
  • collateralization (debt restructuring, asset-backed loan);
  • monetization (sale & licensing);
  • asset acquisition;
  • company/technology targeting for M&A.

In our IP Finance activities we leverage on a proprietary advanced Competitive Market & Technology Intelligence know-how and technology platform managed by our Intangible Equity Research Unit (ICM Research). For targeting, benchmarking and comparable we perform recurrent industry, technology and IP research in Consumer, Industrial goods industries and technologies.

 
|OBJECTIVES|

ICM Advisors uses its knowledge and experience from valuing Intangible and IP assets to identify and capitalize on the growing importance of intellectual property as a distinct asset class.


To address the above challenges ICM Advisors provides high value added professional services to investors for value extraction, monetization and maximization of IP Assets to achieve the following objectives:


  1. Maximize the investment value by exploiting the Technology & IP assets of current Investment Portfolio
  2. Reduce Technology & IP strategic and financial risks
  3. Build a competitive investment portfolio in promising technologies, IP assets, applications and industry segments
  4. Build a revenue generating IP Portfolio (brands, patents, technologies)
  5. Identify high quality IP-driven deal flow and increase the value in M&A transactions
  6. Early warning of investment opportunities

The focus can be the current Investments Portfolio and/or seizing the opportunities.
 

MAXIMIZE THE INVESTMENTS VALUE BY EXPLOITING THE TECHNOLOGY & IP ASSETS


Scope: current investment portfolio


Services & Deliverables:


  • Investment Portfolio Technology & IP assessment (by selected companies by segment)
    • Technology & IP portfolio quality (market, innovation, economic, legal)
    • Risks analysis (strategic, financial, technological, legal)
    • First-cut potential exploitation opportunities

  • Technology & IP Exploitation strategies for a selected investment
    • New technology applications
    • Licensing of non-core IP
    • Technology synergic acquisition
    • Partnership & JVs
    • IP assets sale

  • Valuation and contracting services for the identified exploitation strategy
 

REDUCE TECHNOLOGY & IP STRATEGIC AND FINANCIAL RISKS


Scope: current single investment in portfolio


Services & Deliverables:

  • Risk mapping & drivers (strategic, financial, technological, legal)
  • Value at risk (VAR) assessment (financial impact)
  • Risk mitigation plan & instruments
  • Risk monitoring and prevention
 

BUILD A COMPETITIVE INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO IN PROMISING TECHNOLOGIES, IP AND INDUSTRY SEGMENTS

Scope: new investment opportunities


Services & Deliverables:


  • Identification of attractive technologies and IP driven targets

  • Development of the investment strategies
    • New technology applications
    • In-Licensing
    • Partnership & JVs
    • IP-based new venture
    • Selected strategy business case
 

BUILD A REVENUE GENERATING IP PORTFOLIO (BRANDS, PATENTS, TECHNOLOGIES)


Scope: single IP asset or portfolio acquisition


Services & Deliverables:

  • Identification and potential licensing assessment of IP assets (sleeping brands, non-core patents, distressed companies with good IP assets)
  • Economic-financial valuation of the assets
  • Licensing contracts design
  • Installation of the licensing process and tools
  • Licensing operations support
  • Design of the SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) to manage the IP assets
 

INCREASE THE VALUE IN M&A TRANSACTIONS


Scope: high-quality deal flow generation and single deal transaction (buy-side)


Services & Deliverables:

  • Technology & IP driven targeting
  • Recurrent target monitoring (market, geography, technology, product/applications, IP)
  • Technology & IP Strategic due-diligence
  • Technology/IP Valuation for transaction pricing
  • Technology/IP Portfolio post-integration optimization
 

EARLY WARNING OF IP-DRIVEN INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES


Scope: selected markets and technologies based on the investment strategy objectives and approach

Services & Deliverables:

  • Advanced Competitive Intelligence
  • Monitoring Services delivered through ICM CMTI (Competitive Market Technology Intelligence) web based platform
  • Alert on early warning
  • Investment briefing & reporting