PROVEN VCT PLC (PVN)

PROVEN VCT PLC (PVN)

Blog posts

Mello Event, ProVen and ShareSoc Seminars and Lots More News

It’s been a busy last two days for me with several events attended. The first was on Tuesday when I attended the Mello London event in Chiswick. It was...

Broker Charges, Proven VCT Performance Fee and LoopUp Seminar

The Share Centre are the latest stockbroker to increase their fees. The monthly fee for an ISA account is going up by 4.2% to £5.00 per month with increases on ordinary share accounts and SIPPs also. This is the latest of a number of fee increases among stockbrokers and retail investor platforms. The Share Centre blame the required investment in technology development and “an increasing burden of financial regulation”. The latter is undoubtedly the result of such regulations as MIFID II ...

VCTs – Possible budget changes and pre-planning our response

The autumn statement/budget on 22nd November is getting closer, so we may soon learn the government's views on patient capital. At a Proven VCT meeting on 1 November the VCT manager, Stuart Veale, seemed certain that something will change for VCTs, but nobody knows what. Richard Waltham spoke to him afterwards to suggest that if the changes are adverse then the main focus for lobbying could move from the Treasury to MPs. It may only take a handful of MPs to trigger ...

Performance Fees – Don’t You Just Hate Them?

I mentioned in a previous blog post the result of a performance incentive fee for the manager at British Smaller Companies VCT (BSV) which resulted in total fees of 6.9% of net assets last year. Another similar example is that of Proven VCT (PVN) who managed to do even better at 8.8% of assets for the same reason. This problem of excessive and perverse performance fees has recently been covered in the FCA’s “Asset Management Market Study” and in a very good ...

Why should investors not see performance fee details at Northern VCT?

Northern Venture Trust (a VCT) introduced a management performance fee at a General Meeting on the 18th July. They did not have one before even though they had outperformed the very similar Northern 2 VCT over the last ten years who do. I spoke against the introduction of such a fee at the General Meeting, and raised questions about how the fees were to be calculated, as did another shareholder. The calculations were not at all clear from the meeting notice. As ...

Top performing VCTs and performance fees.

Yesterday the AIC published a note on the “dividend stars” and “strongest performers” among Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) now that such companies have been in existence for 18 years. In terms of total dividends paid out since launch ProVen Growth & Income came top with Baronsmead VCT in second place. But investors should bear in mind that some VCTs pay dividends out of the capital of the trust which sometimes just means that investors are simply having the money they invested ...

AGM Reports

ProVen VCT (PVN) AGM Report 2019

I commented on the results of ProVen VCT before their AGM, here: https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/aim/broker-charges-proven-vct-performance-fee-and-loopup-seminar/ . I said: “Total return to shareholders was 10.3% last year, but the fund manager did even better. Of the overall profits of the company of £18.6 million, they received £7.7 million in management fees (i.e. they received 41% of the profits this year). That includes £5.6 million in performance fees. Studying the management fee (base 2.0%) and the performance fee, I find the latter particularly incomprehensible. I ...

ProVen VCT (PVN) AGM Report 2014

I attended the Annual General Meeting of ProVen VCT today (22/7/2014). This is of course a Venture Capital Trust and one of the longest established and better performing ones. Total return of 5.8% per annum since launch according to Allenbridge, which is the best measure of VCT performance. You also get tax free dividends of course. The fund is managed by Beringea. There were about 5 ordinary shareholders present in a club north of Covent Garden, but it was a hot day ...

ProVen VCT (PVN) AGM Report 2012

On the 21st August I attended the Annual General Meeting of ProVen VCT, one of the best performing venture capital trusts over the years based on total return obtained – over 10% per annum since formation which few other VCTs can match. There are only two possible issues with this company that might concern shareholders. One is the high management fee at 6.1% of net assets based on the latest set of accounts (the Total Return is of course after taking ...

ProVen VCT (PVN) AGM Report 2011 – A Surprise After All

One of the joys of attending Annual General Meetings is that sometimes you turn up, not expecting any fireworks, and instead find that it’s not going to be a boring event after all. This was particularly the case at ProVen VCT where I fully expected attendance on the 24th August to be poor as it was the middle of the holiday season – in fact only 4 shareholders (other than the board) attended the meeting in central London – the company ...