MAVEN INCOME & GROWTH VCT 4 PLC (MAV4)

MAVEN INCOME & GROWTH VCT 4 PLC (MAV4)

Blog posts

Voting Against Directors at Greggs and MAV4

Greggs (GRG) held their Annual General Meeting today. This was a “closed” meeting but with no electronic access provided. Bearing in mind the size of the company, it seems unreasonable that they could not have provided shareholder access. But I note that the votes reported show that several directors received substantial votes against. For example Ian Durant at 4.8% and Sandra Turner at 7.7%. I wonder why? There were also substantial numbers of votes withheld but no explanation has been given. One advantage ...

Laggard Long Serving Directors and Maven VCT

I have long complained about directors serving on boards for longer than 9 years. The UK Corporate Governance Code (which you can easily find on the web) says any director who serves for more than 9 years cannot be considered “independent” and there should be a majority of independent directors. When the UK Corporate Governance Code was drafted, this principle of avoiding long-serving directors was introduced and I consider it a very sound principle. But investment trusts (including Venture Capital Trusts) continue ...

LoopUp, Audioboom, Social Media Abuse and a VCT AGM

LoopUp (LOOP), a small AIM listed company that provides audio conferencing and in which I have a small holding, have announced a proposed acquisition of a company in the same business – MeetingZone Group. This will more than double the size of LoopUp so it constitutes a reverse takeover. As they are paying cash for MeetingZone it will be financed by a term loan and a large placing. The placing will be at 400p per share, when the share price last ...

AGM Reports

Maven Income & Growth VCT 4 Plc (MAV4) AGM 2015

Yesterday I attended the Annual General Meeting of Maven Income & Growth VCT 4 at the Maven offices in Central London. The VCT has steadily been moving away after years of underperformance from investing in AIM companies (the failed strategy of the old fund manager) to investing in private companies. The level of AIM stocks held is now a modest 1.6% of the asset base. Maven VCT4 also merged with Ortus VCT in 2013. The yield based on year end share price ...

Maven Income & Growth VCT 4 (MAV4) – AGM Report 2013

Maven Income & Growth VCT 4 (MAV) is one of a stable of VCTs managed by Maven Capital Partners UK LLP (led by forceful Scotsman Bill Nixon who sits on the board of this company). The AGM was held on the 6th June at Maven’s offices in London. Originally launched in 2005, and previously called Aberdeen Growth Opportunities VCT 2, according to Allenbridge the total return since formation is 2.9% per annum. That is not a great performance bearing in mind ...

Leaders and Laggards

Laggard Long Serving Directors and Maven VCT

I have long complained about directors serving on boards for longer than 9 years. The UK Corporate Governance Code (which you can easily find on the web) says any director who serves for more than 9 years cannot be considered “independent” and there should be a majority of independent directors. When the UK Corporate Governance Code was drafted, this principle of avoiding long-serving directors was introduced and I consider it a very sound principle. But investment trusts (including Venture Capital Trusts) continue ...