Guinness has announced a new share offer for £10 million with a £20 million over-allotment. Indeed, Guinness Venture Capital Trust will be the new and first VCT from Guinness Asset Management.
Unless it has been completely subscribed by an earlier date, the offer will expire at 3pm on 3 April 2023 for this tax year and at 3pm on 31 August 2023 for the next tax year.
In addition, a generalist fund that offers scale-up financing in a broad portfolio is what the new VCT seeks to be. Also, the managers stated that they will seek out companies with strong management teams, promising futures for growth, market-leading positions with distinguishing characteristics, and promising futures for sale or IPO.
Furthermore, the VCT may co-invest with Guinness EIS services and is managed by Guinness Ventures, the growing company investment division of Guinness AM. Moreover, the current Guinness EIS service makes investments in approximately 40 private businesses across 14 industries, with a maximum of 20% of the portfolio allowed for AIM-listed businesses.
According to Guinness, “there will be continual monitoring and Guinness will provide a support structure to help the investee companies fulfill their growth potential” for businesses who join the portfolio.
The company’s head of ventures, Shane Gallwey, said: “We are happy to be able to give investors the chance to tap into this dynamic and interesting area of the UK market. An increase of 65% over the prior tax year, more than £1 billion was raised into VCTs last year, demonstrating the appeal of these investments.”
With £255 million invested into firms from the Guinness EIS and Guinness AIM EIS services since 2010, Guinness Ventures has a strong history of finding and assisting successful small businesses. Investors have already received a return of £95m.
Gallwey added that they relied on their highly skilled investment team, who were genuinely invested in the success of the firms that made up their portfolio, and their considerable experience in investment management, venture capital, and private equity.
