23. Financial instruments and risk management

The Group’s financial instruments comprise primarily cash and other financial assets and various items such as receivables and trade payables which arise directly from its operations. The main purpose of these financial instruments is to provide working capital for the Group’s operations. The Group assesses counterparty risk on a regular basis. Board approval is required for adoption of any new financial instrument or counterparty. The primary focus of the treasury function is preservation of capital.

The Directors consider that the carrying amount of these financial instruments approximates to their fair value.

Concentration of credit risk

Financial instruments that potentially subject the Company to concentration of credit risk consist of principally cash and cash equivalents and U.S. Treasury Bills. Cash and cash equivalents, term deposits and U.S. Treasury Bills are not considered to be exposed to significant credit risk due to the fact they are held in a financial institution with an “A” rating. The Group considers the possibility of significant loss in the event of non-performance by a financial counterparty to be remote.

The Group regularly monitors the creditworthiness of its collaborators and at the reporting date, no financial assets are credit impaired.

Capital management

The Group considers its capital to be equal to the sum of its total equity. The Group monitors its capital using a number of measures including cash flow projections, working capital ratios, the cost to achieve preclinical and clinical milestones and potential revenue from existing partnerships and ongoing licensing activities. The Group’s objective when managing its capital is to ensure it obtains sufficient funding for continuing as a going concern. The Group funds its capital requirements through the issue of new shares to investors, milestone and research support payments received from existing licensing partners and potential new licensees.

Interest rate risk

The nature of the Group’s activities and the basis of funding are such that the Group has significant liquid resources. The Group uses these resources to meet the cost of future research and development activities. Consequently, it seeks to minimize risk in the holding of its bank deposits while maintaining a reasonable rate of interest. The Group is not

financially dependent on the income earned on these resources and therefore the risk of interest rate fluctuations is not significant to the business. Nonetheless, the Directors take steps to secure rates of interest which generate a return for the Group.

Credit and liquidity risk

Credit risk is managed on a Group basis. Funds are deposited with financial institutions with a credit rating equivalent to, or above, the main U.K. clearing banks. The Group’s liquid resources are invested having regard to the timing of payments to be made in the ordinary course of the Group’s activities. All financial liabilities are payable in the short term (between zero and three months) and the Group maintains adequate bank balances in either instant access or short-term deposits to meet those liabilities as they fall due.

The Group only enters into collaboration agreements with large, reputable companies and the creditworthiness of collaborators is monitored on an ongoing basis.

Expected loss rates are based on payment profiles of past receivables and the aging profiles of outstanding balances at the reporting period end date. The historical loss rates are adjusted to reflect current and forward-looking information on macroeconomic factors affecting the ability of the customer to settle the receivables. At the year-end there were no debts that were past due or are expected to be past due. It was therefore concluded on this basis that there were no expected credit losses for the trade receivable.

Trade receivables are written off where there is no reasonable expectation of recovery. Indicators that there is no reasonable expectation of recovery includes, but is not limited to, a failure to engage in a repayment plan with the Group.

Currency risk

The Group’s transactions are commonly denominated in U.K pounds sterling; however, the Group receives payments under its collaboration agreements in U.S. dollars and it incurs a portion of its expenses in other currencies, primarily U.S. dollars, and are exposed to the effects of these exchange rates. The Group seeks to minimize this exposure by maintaining currency cash balances at levels appropriate to meet foreseeable short to mid-term expenses in these other currencies. Where significant foreign currency cash receipts are expected, the Group considers the use of forward exchange contracts to manage its exchange rate exposure.