IP Group PLC on Tuesday said that the overall market environment for growth companies remained challenging but said it was noting improvements in market sentiment.

London-based active investor in early stage science companies said net asset value per share declined 17% to 104.7 pence per share as at June 30 from 126.7p a year ago.

The company’s pretax loss widened to £111.1 million in the first half of 2024 from £53.4 million a year ago.

IP Group said: ‘While the overall market environment for growth companies and early-stage investing remained challenging in the first half of 2024, several factors such as the increase in corporate M&A activity, including the sale of one of our leading portfolio companies, gives us increasing confidence that conditions are improving.’

It added: ‘In the second half of 2024, we hope to see further technical and commercial progress at intrinsic semiconductor technologies as it continues to advance the application of its game-changing non-volatile memory technology. In offering smaller, more manufacturable and better performing memory blocks, Intrinsic aims to provide alternatives to the classical computing platforms, as well as providing a replacement for existing memory platforms such as Flash.’

The company declared no interim dividend, compared to 0.51p per share a year ago.

Chief Executive Officer Greg Smith said: ‘We are seeing improvement in market sentiment toward private transactions in the areas in which we operate, which has been reflected in our ability to realise investments. Furthermore, we expect these exits to take place at or above their carrying values at the end of last year, validating our prudent approach to portfolio valuation.’

IP Group shares were 0.7% higher at 47.80 pence each on Tuesday morning in London.

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