In this issue VCT News Fundraising and Results venture matters Summer Investment Portfolio News Cinema Offer Important Dates for the Diary 2012 The European Commission and UK Treasury create more certainty for VCT investors.
our news Welcome to the Summer 2012 issue of Venture Matters Earlier in the summer the European Commission enhanced its state aid approval for Venture Capital Trusts and Albion is delighted with the development. The UK government received approval to make the changes from the EC in May and they offer not only more certainty for investors but also provide a much needed alternative to traditional sources of financing for small to medium sized business. The state aid is now available to businesses with up to 250 employees and allows for up to 5 million investment per annum. VCT investing really can stimulate growth, drive employment and be an important catalyst for getting the UK economy back on track something that would benefit us all. fundraising and results Albion VCTs Linked Top Up Offer 2011/2012 closed on May 31st having raised a total of just under 10.5 million. Albion is pleased to report a total return of close to 6% from our 2011/2012 top up offer, with the possibility of a further increase. Over the longer term, our mature VCTs have performed well, endorsing our strategy of providing investors with high yielding, asset-rich and highly tax-efficient exposure to a balanced portfolio of UK smaller unquoted companies. Albion VCT continues to be the best performing of all the mature VCTs launched in the 1990s. Stop Press Albion Ventures was selected as a finalist in the Health Investor Awards, the Investor AllStars Awards and also the VCT Fund of the Year Awards. We are waiting to hear regarding our first entry into the Education Investor Awards. 02 VENTURE MATTERS
2 for 1 cinema ticket offer City Screen Throughout August and September all recipients of Venture Matters are entitled to two tickets for the price of one at Picturehouse Cinemas. This offer is available from Monday to Thursday only. To claim this offer please quote Venture Matters in person at the cinema or in advance by telephoning the booking line. This offer is not available through the Picturehouse website. Premium-priced films and events are excluded from the offer. It cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. For a list of participating cinemas please see: www.picturehouses.co.uk or telephone 0871 902 5747 Information for Shareholders Dates for the diary SHAREholder seminar Albion shareholder seminars will be held in both London and Harrogate. Please reserve the dates in your diaries and we will send details nearer the time. The dates are as follows; November 14th at The RAC Club in London November 19th at The Crown Hotel in Harrogate We have an interesting and informative agenda planned so we hope you can join us. Merger of Funds As you may be aware documents for the merger of Albion VCT PLC and Albion Prime VCT PLC were posted on the 27th July. The meetings to approve the merger will be on September 17th and 25th. Electronic Correspondence Option In keeping with the drive to reduce paper wastage and speed up the flow of information, Albion is providing the option to receive correspondence regarding shareholder matters and other information electronically. Venture Matters is also available in an easy-to-read page turning electronic version. If you would prefer to receive correspondence electronically please visit the Contact Us page on the website www.albion-ventures.co.uk, confirm your email address and opt-in to this option. We would also encourage all our shareholders to access their shareholding details via the Computershare Investor Centre on their website www-uk.computershare.com/investor 03
investment news ALBION VENTURES LLP is one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK, managing approximately 230 million across eight Venture Capital Trusts. Opta Opta Sign Exclusive Data Partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board. Opta has signed a three-year deal with the ECB to become the official and exclusive data collection and distribution partner for domestic first-class cricket. This partnership will cover the full domestic programme and Opta will provide fast and accurate ball-by-ball data feeds from all matches. This deal further cements Opta s place as Europe s premier sports data suppliers, and complements an extensive international cricket database. ECB Commercial Director John Perera said Cricket is a sport which thrives on statistical analysis. Our new partnership is designed to boost fans interest in the sport as well as providing an important resource for our key stakeholders and media partners. Opta is an established market leader in the field of sports data capture and a very welcome addition to our roster of official partners. Radnor House Radnor House School has been rated Outstanding across all seven inspection areas by Ofsted. As far as records show, Radnor House is the first new school in the country to receive a clean sweep of the highest ratings. Radnor House became one of Britain s few venture-capital-backed independent schools when Albion invested 8.7m of seed funding back in 2010 and David Paton the Head Elect is understandably delighted with the results. Of all the secondary schools in the country there are only around 0.5% that have achieved this rating. Understandably the school has seen extraordinarily strong demand for places this year and has already filled two of the seven year groups open to new students. Albion is pleased to be supporting The Radnor House Charitable Trust which aims to provide funding for a number of less advantaged local children, who show particular skills, to join the sixth form. STOP PRESS The Opta team have also been busy raising money for The William Wates Memorial Trust a charity that helps disadvantaged young people. In terrible conditions and with all sorts of difficulties, the team completed five stages of The Tour de France, cycling c. 220Km per day, including 3000m of climbing. The final team member returned back to base after 11pm having done the final descent in complete darkness. Congratulations all round. 04
InVESTMEnT news SUMMEr 2012 In the spotlight The Environmental Portfolio In 2009 Albion committed to invest 15% of its managed funds into the renewable sector To date we have invested 22 million into seven renewable energy companies and 8 million into two clean-tech companies. The Alto Prodotto wind turbine began generating its first electricity in January 2012 and by June was providing enough clean energy to power c.3,000 households. our Solar investments are powering c.6,000 homes and the biogas plant in Perth is producing enough electricity from the waste materials of the local community to power as many as 9,000 households. We are actively seeking further investment opportunities across a range of proven technologies and we hope to shortly add hydropower to our portfolio. risk WArnIng This newsletter is not a prospectus and should not be relied upon in making a decision to invest in any of our funds. That decision should be based solely on the relevant prospectus or fund raising document. none of the figures quoted herein should be regarded as a dividend or profit forecast. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. This newsletter is issued by Albion Ventures llp which is authorised and regulated by the financial Services Authority. Mi-Pay Limited Mi-Pay began as a spin out from logica in the mid-2000s and Albion Ventures invested in 2007. Albion helped Mi-Pay focus its strategy and strengthen the team and Mi-Pay is now a recognised leader in its field of outsourced payment processing for mobile operators. Today the company focuses on pre-paid top ups, and offers a fully managed service to its customers including managing the fraud risks. The business now collects payments via credit card, direct debit, Paypal, as well as alternative payments and across multiple platforms including:. web. phone. SMS smartphone/ mobile apps, Facebook. The company currently transacts over 40m per annum and continues to grow rapidly. In Europe, customers include Vodafone, o2/telefonica, Telfort, Tesco Mobile and lebara and the business recently won its first clients in Singapore, Australia, Saudia Arabia and oman. The business is headquartered in Surrey and employs approximately 60 people across its offices in the UK, romania and dubai. VEnTUrE MATTErS 05
performance Albion Ventures continues to pay a regular stream of income tax free dividends to their VCT investors. For details on recent dividends, fund share prices and latest Manager s Report, please visit the Our Funds section of the Albion website. www.albion-ventures.co.uk. Dates of forthcoming AGMs can also be found on our website. Performance of VCTs managed by Albion Ventures LLP Fund Launch date Total return since launch Mid-market share price Last dividend paid/ declared per share Albion Venture Capital Trust PLC Ordinary Shares Apr 1996 197.80p 67.00p 2.50p paid on 31/7/12 C Shares* Apr 1997 186.25p (see above) (see above) Albion Prime VCT PLC Apr 1997 115.45p 60.00p 1.50p to be paid on 31/8/12 Albion Development VCT PLC Ordinary Shares* Jan 1999 139.45p 68.00p 2.50p paid on 31/5/12 C shares* Oct 2002/ 131.79p (see above) (see above) Jan 2004 D shares** Dec 2009 98.35p 92.00p 1.75p paid on 31/5/12 Albion Technology & General VCT PLC Ordinary Shares Jan 2001 151.90p 62.50p 2.50p paid on 30/4/12 C Shares* Jan 2006 82.12p (see above) (see above) Albion Income & Growth VCT PLC Oct 2004 87.45p 57.00p 1.75p paid on 29/6/12 Albion Enterprise VCT PLC Apr 2007 95.25p 75.25p 1.75p to be paid on 31/8/12 Kings Arms Yard VCT PLC*** Apr 1996 76.03p 11.50p 0.50p paid on 27/4/12 Crown Place VCT PLC*** Apr 1998 74.33p 28.00p 1.25p paid 31/3/12 Albion VCTs Linked Top Up Offer Nov 2010 99.53p 79.04p Dividends paid and 2010/2011**** declared since 7/1/11 allotment are 8.84p Albion VCTs Linked Nov 2011 97.44p 82.00p Dividends paid and Top Up Offer 2011/2012**** declared since 10/1/12 allotment are 3.26p All data is prepared as at 25 July 2012, using the last published net asset value of the relevant fund. *The Albion Venture Capital Trust PLC C shares were converted to Ordinary shares at a rate of 1 Ordinary share for each C share. Albion Development VCT PLC C shares were converted to Ordinary shares at a rate of 1.0715 Ordinary shares for each C share. The Albion Technology & General C shares were converted to Ordinary shares at a rate of 0.7779 Ordinary shares for each C share on 31 March 2011 **The Albion Development VCT PLC D shares were issued at 100 pence each and the initial net asset value was 94.5 pence after deducting fundraising costs of 5.5 pence per share. Dividends paid/declared plus NAV. Please note: the above excludes all tax reliefs. 25 July 2012 ***Albion Ventures LLP took over the management of Crown Place VCT PLC in April 2005 and Kings Arms Yard VCT PLC in January 2011. ****Performance data for the Albion VCTs Linked Top Up offers are based on a pro forma calculation based on the performance of each of the 7 VCTs which were part of the Offer. Albion Ventures LLP 1 King s Arms Yard, London, EC2R 7AF T: 020 7601 1850 E: info@albion-ventures.co.uk www.albion-ventures.co.uk