IP Group shares increased 1.4% in late morning trading on Wednesday, despite swinging to a loss of £309.8 million in HY1 from a profit of £116.5 million the year before.
IP Group linked its HY1 loss to the reversal of gains on Oxford Nanopore, reflecting a slide in public market interest in life science tools companies.
The company announced a net portfolio loss of £291.1 million against a net gain of £140.4 million, with a climb in net overheads to £11.1 million from £9.6 million.
The IP Group mentioned a net asset value slide to 136.7p per share from 167p per share.
The firm also noted a fall in its balance sheet to £235.7 million against £321.9 million the last year.
“Having acted to ensure that the Group has a strong level of liquidity, IP Group ended the period with gross Cash of £235.7m,” said IP Group CEO Greg Smith.
“This financial strength enabled the Group to continue to invest into our leading companies over the period as well as continuing to return a proportion of all exits to shareholders via dividends and share buybacks.”
“In addition, we have arranged a private market debt issue to provide additional funding flexibility in what may be difficult market conditions.”
The IP Group confirmed a dividend raise to 0.5p per share compared to 0.48p year-on-year.