IP Group CEO on H1 growth, stabilising NAV stabilises and rising cash realisations

We had a good period, good first half. The cash realisations, at the beginning of the year we set an internal target about £50 million for FY25. And so obviously the first half performance and our momentum going into half two gives us a high degree of confidence of achieving that and possibly even exceeding it.

Good to see you Stephen. Yes, we made strong progress in the first half. I would say we were pleased with some encouraging portfolio developments and also that this pipeline of significant milestones that are building through to the end of 2027. A couple of standout examples where the IPO of Hinge Health on the New York Stock Exchange and Oxford Nanopore beating guidance with its first half results. So that was very good.

Secondly, we remain confident in our target to deliver over 250 million of cash exit by the end of 2027, and we achieved 30 million of realizations in the first half, that's about nine times what we achieved in the equivalent in 2024. And then importantly, I think from a shareholder point of view, our NAV per share stabilized. So it's down a little bit to the half year. But at the time of writing, at the time of these results, they were up at about a pound, mainly due to recovery in some of our public company shares. And then I think the final thing to add is we're seeing increasing momentum around our efforts to add to our private scale up capital. We have good confidence of securing at least one new mandate by the time I talk to shareholders again as part of our full year results.

Yeah, I was reflecting. I was reading my FT on Saturday morning. I almost sort of choked on my yogurt as a man of a certain age you don't get cornflakes anymore, you've got to do yogurt. But I was quite surprised to read the headline: the US market for IPO is exploded back to life. You know, the busiest week for four years and all that sort of stuff. And I think a rewarding thing for us was of course the Hinge Health IPO and the fact that they've released a fantastic set of second quarter results and that's traded up almost 80% since the IPO. So that was very good. So I think that public markets, a bit of improvement in that IPO window firstly, there's a direct knock on to our performance. But I say more in the context that it offers a bit more liquidity for private investors. That means there's more private capital that comes back into the system. And often, scaling quoted businesses can be quite acquisitive as they bolt on technology, and that can be helpful for our portfolio. And I think that's a theme we've seen a bit more M&A interest in our portfolio over the course of the first six months. So that gives us confidence for the next six, 12, 18 months ahead.