Galleon Holdings, the Stourbridge-based new media group headed by entrepreneur Jim Driscoll, has cut pre-tax losses for the six months to March.

The company, which experienced growth in all areas of the business, yesterday said that pre-tax losses had narrowed from £ 509,000 to £197,000 as sales rose 18 per cent to £553,000.

Chairman Mr Driscoll told shareholders: "Galleon's strategic objective to create, acquire, develop and own a significant portfolio of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) continues to attract interest within the industry."

He added: "The company remains focused on unlocking value in entertainment and product based IPR and during the last six months it has succeeded in this regard. "With the arrival of our new management team of Stephen Green and Len Dunne in January Galleon has the skills in-house to manage a piece of IPR through the whole of its lifecycle.

"Our strengthened skill base has undertaken a complete review of our IPR portfolio during this period.

"The current catalogue of properties includes Oggies, Professor Winklebottom's Universe, Malcolm, Astro Knights, Peppers Patrol and our latest property, Goalactika-442, created by Stephen Green and Len Dunne.

"As a result of this review conducted in consultation with J Christopher Entertainment, our Los Angeles animation studio, we have decided to prioritise and reposition some of the properties.

"We have taken back the rights for Astro Knights from Jaguar Media Entertainment as they were unable to progress with this project in a timeframe that was satisfactory to us.

"The rounded IPR experience that is now within Galleon has allowed us to assume full control of this project.

"We have also put into development a new sports fantasy kids TV show, Goalactika-442.

"This project has had a positive response from key broadcasters in the UK, US and Japan and we are now finalising its development with a view to going into production by the end of the year."

Croco, Galleon's promotions sourcing division, also made progress. "Our client list has grown significantly with a strong mix of new and repeat business," said Mr Driscoll.

" Orders of more than 60 million units have been achieved in the period and we are currently looking to secure an increase in business for the coming year."

A4, Galleon's publishing company, and Probe Media, its database marketing arm, also saw significant improvement.

"Our new sales and editorial teams have delivered increases in global advertising sales compared with the previous period from last year.

"We are attracting new business from territories outside of the UK and are achieving a much higher ratio of forward bookings.

"This allows for more efficient and profitable planning for future issues of our flagship publications," Mr Driscoll added. "Given that the growth of Croco, A4 and Probe Media is organic and sustainable I am confident that the turnaround of the group will continue during the course of 2005," he said.