VCTs

Investment Trust fees – should they be based on market cap or NAV?

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Should Investment Trusts (including VCTs)  base their fees on market cap and not Net Asset Value? In the case of of Chrysalis Investments (CHRY), the 58% discount to NAV means the 0.77% fees as a % of NAV are in excess of 1.5% of market cap, which in my opinion is egregious:   A story in Investment Week "Chrysalis managers stand by unlisted holdings" https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/4055056/ also highlighted the ...

VCT INVESTORS GROUP Update and report on 23 March 2021 webinar

ShareSoc News Item by Cliff Weight, Director 117 people registered for our 23 March 2021 webinar and at least 94 attended, much higher than the 26 the previous year at the East India Club. The organisers received much positive feedback, for which they are grateful, and indicates that similar future events should be planned. At the webinar: Cliff Weight did a brief introduction of why the VCT Investors Group was formed and why it exists – to lobby on poor performance, poor ...

Albion Venture Capital VCT – AGM recommendations

Following a successful engagement led by ShareSoc (Tim Grattan and Cliff Weight led this Campaign) we agreed a compromise with the Directors and agreed to support the new proposals. The annual report has now been published and contains the following description of the way the Board engaged following the 2019 AGM. New management performance incentive At the General Meeting held on 21 August 2019, an ordinary resolution was proposed to approve the changes to the Company’s Management Agreement, as detailed in the circular sent to shareholders on ...

Albion Capital Group LLP Partners’ 67% pay increase

Albion Capital Group LLP have recently disclosed their average pay per Partner for year end 31 March 2019 was £803,000, a whopping 67% increase on the previous year (£480,000)....

Albion Venture Capital (AAVC) Update 4, 14 Oct 2019

AAVC Chairman Richard Glover invited ShareSoc to a meeting to discuss our concerns as part of his process to engage with Shareholders, following the 30% vote against the new management agreement voted on at the EGM in August 2019 and the very extensive questioning at the AGM (see the AGM write up by Tim Grattan https://www.sharesoc.org/agm-reports/albion-venture-vct-aavc-agm-2019/  and my own report https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/vcts/albion-venture-capital-vct-aavc-agm-result-and-actions/ . AAVC is engaging with a broad range of shareholders and has written to about 50% of the larger shareholders who ...

3i – Well Managed and Well Incentivised

The 8 times increase in the 3i share price in the past 10 years means that 3i is one of the largest holdings in my portfolio. So I thought...

VCTs and the Budget

It looks like VCTs have escaped, but there is some tightening of the qualifications. We will need to read this in detail to see the outcome. There has however...

Response to Financing Growth Review

The Government is currently consulting on “Financing Growth in Innovative Firms” (otherwise known as the Patient Capital Review). It covers the perceived problems in building world-beating companies from a small size in the UK, and the ways the Government provides support to early stage companies. That typically means the VCT, EIS and SEIS schemes with their associated tax reliefs and other possible “support” programmes where the Government funds them directly. Anyone who invests in this area, directly or indirectly, should respond to ...

Markets in Freefall, Chinese shares and VCT Issues

While the world seems to be collapsing around us - with sharp falls in the price of most commodities including the critical ones of oil and gold - this writer took the time to attend the Annual General Meeting of Downing ONE VCT this morning. Forget also the fact that the Chinese stock market plummeted yesterday. The more I read about the dynamics of that market the more it looks similar to the US market in the 1920s where manipulation was ...

Guide to Venture Capital Trusts and Foresight VCTs

The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) have just published a guide to Venture Capital Trusts entitled "Going for Growth".  It provides a good overview of this specialist sector of the market. It can be found here: http://www.theaic.co.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/files/AICVCTConsumerguide.pdf It includes a number of examples of successful investments made by VCT managers including that made by Foresight in Procam. However, the dangers of VCT investment were highlighted recently by the events at Foresight 2 VCT who recently held their Annual General Meeting. In their ...