In this month's edition of View From the Bridge, it is my pleasure to announce the publication of the inaugural edition of MJ Hudson Allenbridge's VCT Spotlight Report. After the success of our first Spotlight report on AIM IHT, we decided that the VCT market should be next. In the report, we feature the VCTs fundraising in the 2019/20 tax year and provide our view of the current landscape (and performance). We want you to be able to make the very best investment decision, this year.

We are excited to publish this report, providing investors and their advisers with information on 2019/20 VCT fundraising, all in one place, for the first time. Although a small number of VCTs did not provide the required data, we are satisfied that the list of participants provides an excellent representation of the VCT market, open this year.

The report covers a range of information, which investors will find useful when deciding which VCT to invest in, from MJ Hudson Allenbridge performance statistics, to each manager's personal outlook on the market and their funds. We hope that the report will enable you to compare funds to help you narrow down the market. We have also indicated for which VCTs we have carried out a full due diligence review. The reports on these VCTs are available to subscribers on AdvantageIQ. AdvantageIQ is the only information source and toolkit you need to make the best VCT investment decision for yourself or your client.

In this article, we share a few teasers from the full Spotlight Report, but please do download the complete report, for the full picture. For the VCTs that are fundraising this year1, a few interested statistics of note are:

  • The average number of investee companies for VCTs fundraising this year is 46, with opportunities for investors ranging from two brand new fund launches to an established VCT, with has 92 companies in its portfolio.
  • The average annual dividend yield is 6%, with few managers paying out large special dividends in the last year. The highest cumulative dividend per share for the last financial year was just under 14p.
  • In terms of outlook, many managers are showing stronger intentions to provide greater levels of follow-on investments and many continue to rely on the steady revenue streams provided by legacy investments.
  • Most managers mention Brexit but remain uncertain on outcomes. They are hopeful that Brexit will boost domestic business activity and, therefore, have a positive impact on the VCT market.
  • Technology continues to be manager's key focus for future investments, and many expect to source future deal flow from this broad sector.
  • Medium 5-year IRR for the entire VCT market (including those not fundraising this year) is just over 5%

This article gives just a brief overview of the report, so would encourage subscribers to download the report, in full, for further insights. We take our role as an independent due diligence provider seriously, and, recognise the importance of evaluating managers not only on performance (based on our priority database of performance statistics going back to commencement of VCTs), and based on our rigorous methodology, but also by helping investors to identify the key differentiators between the various funds, as demonstrated by our in-depth analysis in our reports on all VCTs open for investment in 2019/202.

We hope you enjoy this VCT Spotlight report. We are committed to producing other thought leadership and spotlight reports, so please do contact us if there is any area of tax-advantaged investments which we can assist with.

Footnotes

1 Based on Managers who provided us with details submissions to be included in the Spotlight Report
2 Excluding managers who do not wish to have a published due diligence report completed.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.