Guinness Ventures, the growth company investment arm of Guinness Global Investors, today announced that it has raised in excess of the minimum target fundraise and has made the first issue of shares in its new Venture Capital Trust, Guinness VCT plc.
The shares will be admitted to the London Stock Exchange and the offering remains open for subscriptions. It is the first VCT vehicle to be launched by Guinness Ventures.
The new VCT will provide investors with a balanced and diversified portfolio of investments into some of the UKs most exciting growth companies. In particular, the manager will invest in businesses with three key characteristics: strong management teams; exceptional growth prospects and strong competitive positions with unique attributes which make them difficult to replicate or substitute.
The Guinness VCT may co-invest with Guinness EIS services. Currently, the Guinness EIS service is an active investor in over 40 private growth companies across 14 sectors. Guinness Ventures also has an extensive track record of investing in AIM-listed companies and may invest up to 20% of the portfolio in AIM-listed companies.
The diversified approach to investing from Guinness provides exposure to growth companies across a range of sectors including technology, education, ecommerce, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, leisure and food & drink. The focus is on companies that already have a proven product, service or technology, but are looking for funds to help them gain further traction in their respective markets.
The team uses a robust and tested investment process to select companies, assessing hundreds of businesses each year from within its network or from direct approaches from entrepreneurs. For companies which become part of the portfolio, there will be ongoing monitoring and Guinness Ventures will provide a support framework to help the investee companies achieve their growth potential. The exit strategy for each investment is assessed from the start of this process and reviewed regularly as part of the focus on generating value for investors.
The Guinness Ventures team has a proven track-record in identifying businesses that have demonstrated the ability to raise and appropriately employ seed-stage funding and now require further funding to accelerate growth and deliver shareholder returns.
The application deadline for the 2022/2023 tax year is 3pm on 3rd April 2023. Investors seeking to take part in this offer should speak to their adviser or broker. Application forms for shares or more information on the VCT can be found at www.guinnessgi.com/vct or contact the Guinness Ventures team at vct@guinnessfunds.com.
Commenting on the launch, Shane Gallwey, Head of Ventures at Guinness Global Investors said: “We are very pleased to have successfully launched our new Venture Capital Trust. A totally new VCT is extremely rare, with very few launched over the last decade and this new vehicle underlines the strength of our expertise in this area. With greater clarity from the government over the future of VCTs, we believe this is an exciting time for retail investors to take advantage of the many benefits of a professionally managed, diversified portfolio.
“We draw on the extensive investment management, venture capital and private equity experience of our highly experienced investment team who are truly invested in the success of the companies that make up our portfolio.”
