Joint Administrators of a food technology company
An innovative award-winning food safety technology company focused on the detection of mycotoxins throughout the global food supply chain
It was set up to bring an affordable, user-friendly and robust testing procedure that could be implemented by non-scientists outside of the laboratory environment. Their products were used to test a variety of items throughout the global food supply chain including nuts, dried fruits and green coffee.
Metis Partners had been asked to conduct an intensive sales and marketing campaign to maximise the return from the intellectual property assets relating to a food technology company, which went into administration because of business sale failure.
We began the assignment by carrying out an IP Asset Discovery exercise. This entailed identifying and assessing the IP assets, using desktop research and holding IP discovery exercises with key people in the Company
Our research highlighted an extensive portfolio of IP assets which included internationally protected patents, trade marks, design rights and useful organisational knowledge.
We then produced bespoke sales and marketing documentation, including a ‘technology overview’, highlighting the value of the Company’s key IP assets and packaged this in a way so as to maximise the financial return.
We conducted market research to build and utilise a bespoke database of potentially interested parties from multiple markets and sectors, as well as Metis Partners’ existing global network of contacts interested in IP assets.
Metis Partners was able to garner significant interest in the IP portfolio and competitive tension was created throughout our established auction process in order to ensure the best possible return for the client.
We attracted interest and secured offers for the IP assets from large, well-known international corporations, by identifying a range of valuable IP assets and highlighting these during our successful marketing campaign. Our established auction process maintained competitive tension. During the negotiation stage, Metis Partners was able to successfully secure a deal substantially higher than the original best offer received due to the level of interest generated.
As a result of executing this marketing campaign, Metis Partners ensured that creditors recovered the maximum return for IP assets in the scenario and that insolvency practitioners have mitigated their risks and achieved the best outcome possible.
The Outcome was Metis Partners:
- 1. Delivered a sophisticated and well managed sales process from pre-marketing through to completion
- 2. Delivered an IP valuation across a broad range of IP asset classes
- 3. Created substantial interest in the IP assets using a bespoke marketing campaign building on our extensive database of circa 8,000 parties interested in IP we created a target mailing list of circa 350 parties marketing heavily using social media and working with our PR partner
- 4. Maximised the returns for creditors trough creating competitive tension using our knowledge of the market and IP valuation drivers to guide buyers on price formation
- 5. Ensured the insolvency practitioner achieved SIP16 compliance
