Albion Development VCT PLC - Ordinary Shares : Interim Management Statement
Albion Development VCT PLC
Interim Management Statement
LEI Code 213800FDDMBD9QLHLB38
Introduction
I am pleased to present Albion Development VCT PLC (the “Company”)’s interim management statement for the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 September 2019.
Performance and dividends
The Company’s unaudited net asset value (NAV) as at 30 September 2019 was £70.1 million or 83.52 pence per share (excluding treasury shares), after accounting for the dividend of 2.25 pence per share paid on 30 September 2019 to shareholders on the register on 13 September 2019.
Albion VCTs Prospectus Top Up Offers 2019/20
The Company announced on 22 October 2019 that it has launched a Prospectus Top Up Offer to raise up to £8 million before issue costs, with a further over-allotment facility of £2 million, of new Ordinary shares for subscription in the 2019/20 and 2020/21 tax years. Full details of the offer are contained in a Prospectus that was published on the same date on the Manager’s website at .
Share issues
During the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 September 2019, the Company issued the following shares under the dividend reinvestment scheme (and are included in the net asset value figures for 30 September 2019 above):
| Date | Number of shares issued | Issue price per share | Net invested £’000 |
| 30 September 2019 | 378,342 | 83.03 pence | 299 |
Share buybacks
During the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 September 2019, the Company purchased 223,000 Ordinary shares for £175,000 at an average price of 78.15p pence per Ordinary share. All of the shares are to be held in treasury.
It is the Board’s intention for such buy-backs to be at around a 5 per cent. discount to net asset value, so far as market conditions and liquidity permit.
Portfolio
The following investments have been made during the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 September 2019:
| New investments | £000s | Activity |
| Elliptic Enterprises Limited | 639 | Provider of Anti Money Laundering services to digital asset institutions |
| Total new investments | 639 |
| Further investments | £000s | Activity |
| Koru Kids Limited | 188 | Online marketplace connecting parents and nannies |
| The Evewell (Harley Street) Limited | 37 | Developer and operator of a women’s health centre of excellence focussing on fertility |
| Convertr Media Limited | 23 | Digital lead generation software |
| Total further investments | 248 |
Disposals
The following material disposals and loan stock repayments were made during the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 September 2019:
- As announced in the Half-yearly Financial Report, contracts were exchanged for the sale of Process Systems Enterprise Limited. Proceeds of £1.3 million have been received after the period end, generating a 10 times return on cost to the Company; and
- G.Network Communications Limited repaid its loan stock of £577,000.
Top ten holdings as at 30 September 2019:
| Investment | Value £000s | % of net asset value | Activity |
| Radnor House School (Holdings) Limited | 6,947 | 9.9 | Independent schools for children aged 5-18 |
| Egress Software Technologies Limited | 6,447 | 9.2 | Encrypted email & file transfer service provider |
| Proveca Limited | 4,412 | 6.3 | Reformulation of medicines for paediatric use |
| Quantexa Limited | 3,010 | 4.3 | Network analytics platform to detect financial crime |
| Chonais River Hydro Limited | 2,359 | 3.4 | Owner and operator of a 2 MW hydro-power scheme in the Scottish Highlands |
| The Street by Street Solar Programme Limited | 2,353 | 3.4 | Owns and operates photovoltaic systems on domestic properties in the UK |
| Mirada Medical Limited | 2,057 | 2.9 | Developer of medical imaging software using Deep Learning |
| Regenerco Renewable Energy Limited | 2,016 | 2.9 | Generator of renewable energy from roof top solar installations |
| Bravo Inns II Limited | 1,621 | 2.3 | Owner and operator of freehold pubs |
| G.Network Communications Limited | 1,479 | 2.1 | Ultra-fast fibre optic broadband provider in central London |
A full breakdown of the Company’s portfolio can be found on the Company’s webpage on the Manager’s website at , by following the ‘Portfolio of Investments’ link under the ‘Fund reports’ section.
Material events and transactions after the period end
After the period end, the Company undertook the following material investment transaction:
- Following a restructuring of Radnor House School (Holdings) Limited, Radnor House Twickenham was sold generating proceeds of £4.0 million;
- Proceeds of £1.3 million received from the sale of Process Systems Enterprise Limited;
- Investment of £685,000 in a new portfolio company, Cantab Research Limited (trading as Speechmatics), a provider of low footprint automated speech recognition which can be deployed in the cloud, on premise or on device across 29 languages;
- Investment of £107,000 in an existing portfolio company, Oviva AG, a technology enabled service business in medical nutritional therapy (MNT); and
- Investment of £100,000 in an existing portfolio company, uMotif Limited, a patient engagement and data capture platform used in real world and observational research.
There have been no further significant events or transactions that the Board is aware of which would have a material impact on the financial position of the Company between 1 October 2019 to 8 November 2019.
Further information
The Company continues to offer a Dividend Reinvestment Scheme to existing shareholders. Details of this Scheme can be found on the Company’s webpage on the Manager’s website at .
Further information regarding historic and current financial performance and other useful shareholder information can be found on the Company’s webpage on the Manager’s website under .
Ben Larkin, Chairman
8 November 2019
For further information please contact:
Albion Capital Group LLP – Tel: 020 7601 1850
