Mobeus Income & Growth VCT and The Income & Growth VCT (the Mobeus VCTs), managed by specialist alternative asset manager Gresham House, have launched a £70 million share offer with an over-allotment option of £20 million.
The new funds raised will provide further liquidity for the trusts to take advantage of new investment opportunities across a wide range of innovative early-stage UK businesses and enable additional support for existing portfolio companies. This follows the exceptional success of the Mobeus VCTs’ fundraising in 2022, with the VCTs raising a record £45 million in the first 24 hours of the offer and a total of £76 million.
The Mobeus VCTs have consistently outperformed the market, ranking in the top quartiles for VCTs over both five and ten years to 30 June 2024. Launched in the 2000s, the Mobeus VCTs have combined net assets of c.£343 million and have an existing portfolio of 50 companies.
Earlier this year, the Mobeus VCTs streamlined their operations by merging two of their constituent funds, Mobeus Income & Growth 2 VCT and Mobeus Income & Growth 4 VCT, into Mobeus Income & Growth VCT and The Income & Growth VCT, respectively. This consolidation has allowed for greater operational efficiency and focus on investment opportunities.
The share offer comes on the heels of a period of significant deal activity for the Mobeus VCTs. The Mobeus VCTs have closed a series of new deals in recent months, including a £6.3mn investment into unstructured data governance and cyber incident management leaders ActiveNav and Actfore, and an £8.5m investment into open banking and open finance software specialist ‘Ozone API’.
The Gresham House VCT leadership team is supported by more than 50 people including 30 investment professionals. Together, they manage £804 million across the Mobeus and Baronsmead VCTs.
Trevor Hope, managing director and CIO, private equity at Gresham House, and manager of the Mobeus VCTs, said:
“Through strategic adaptation and a focus on technological evolution to develop new, and to disrupt existing markets, our portfolio companies have generally shown outstanding resilience and are well positioned for meaningful growth as macroeconomic sentiment improves.
“This share offer comes at a pivotal moment for SMEs, with sectors such as healthcare, retail and business services facing a new era of technological transformation. Fuelled by the rise of artificial intelligence, we have identified an array of promising new businesses that can benefit from our support and expertise to accelerate their growth.
“Our team, underpinned by the resources of Gresham House, has an excellent track record of providing this backing. Since 31 March 2021, the Mobeus VCTs have achieved total cash proceeds of £137.5 million over an original cost of £49.5 million and have realised cumulative gains of £88.0 million from nine full realisations and two partial realisations.
“The opportunity set in our investable universe has expanded significantly. This share offer presents a compelling chance for both new and existing investors to support the next wave of UK businesses at the forefront of this transformation whilst benefitting from the attractive tax reliefs of investing in VCTs.”
