The Lemon Fool

Between that and January's special, that's a lot of cash they're shedding.

Naflod (or anyone): do you keep an archive of the cash pot size data you periodically post here (and previously in Another Place)? I wonder what a graph over time might look like for some VCTs?

Between that and January's special, that's a lot of cash they're shedding

Yes - add to that their discount to NAV policy on DRIS, and it makes for a very attractive DRIS model. Its effective action is coming close to the old, and now forbidden, buy-back and re-investment.

The directors will not be proposing a final dividend.

From reading the RNS announcement, I understand that to mean that there will not be a final dividend for the year ended 31 March 2017, but we can hope for a final, and possibly further interim(s), for the year now current ending 31 March 2018.

Hi UncleE

Naflod (or anyone): do you keep an archive of the cash pot size data you periodically post here (and previously in Another Place)? I wonder what a graph over time might look like for some VCTs?

I'm afraid I haven't kept the original tables that I've posted; I update my main VCT spreadsheet with the figures as the full and half year accounts appear. I do now have a tab that picks up the figures and is ready to format for posting, rather than my previous over-typing of a csv file.

That does, however, provide an idea to save that tab upon posting into a new spreadsheet, adding to the collection each time I update. On which subject, the next update will be coming this evening (plus complementary feature) holiday let internet connection permitting (it was down yesterday and this morning, otherwise it would have already appeared).

If I get the time I may hunt back through the earlier postings and see what I can do, but it won't be soon.

naflod

There are concerns about the fees YFM charges BSV, detailed here: https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/company-n ... anies-vct/

Get your votes in for the coming AGM!

Cheers,
Mark B

marben100 wrote:Get your votes in for the coming AGM!
Cheers,
Mark B

I brought this matter up at the AGM last year but the Chairman obviously wasn't interested. Hence, I have already voted against her re-election for this year's AGM.

Indeed the sums flowing into the incentive scheme for the managers seem high.

Anyone going to the AGM tomorrow at 12.00 at 33 St James Sq?

What a quiet start to the new year on here

Anyone planning on doing BSC 2 later this month? Or all invested in the pre-Budget rush?

marktristan wrote:What a quiet start to the new year on here

Anyone planning on doing BSC 2 later this month? Or all invested in the pre-Budget rush?

No - I've given up on these two cos apart from Go Outdoors they haven't done much and their fees are high

In particular post 30565 by oxmatt » February 11th, 2017, 7:46 am

I think it is actually the ugliness of the performance fee hitting home!

"Following the realisation a dividend of £16.0 million was paid on 18 January 2017 and the resultant additional incentive fee of £3.6 million was provided for in the quarter."

So my read is that the incentive fee payable on the large dividend (£3.6m) largely as a result of the realisation more than offset the actual uplift on the final sale (£2.8m). So actually there must have been some other positive revaluations to have an overall uplift in total return.

Dividend Declaration RNS today:-
http://www.iii.co.uk/research/LSE:BSV/n ... xt=LSE:BSV

British Smaller Companies VCT plc ("the Company")
Interim Dividend
The directors are pleased to announce the payment of an interim dividend for the year ending 31 March 2019 of 4.0 pence per ordinary share ("Interim Dividend").
Dividends paid in the year to 31 March 2018 totalled 5.75 pence per share. The directors will not be proposing a final dividend.
The interim dividend will be paid on 18 May 2018 to those shareholders on the Company's register at the close of business on 20 April 2018. The ex-dividend date will be 19 April 2018.

Around the time of issue of last year's BSV annual report there was comment about the high level of fees paid, primarily due to the performance fee which is dependent mainly on the level of dividends paid.

The fees are detailed in page 60 of this year's annual report,
2017 fees paid £5,618,000
2018 fees paid £1,782,000
for comparison the dividends paid in those financial years were:
2017 dividends £15,861,000
2018 dividends £4,411,000

Over those two years the net assets have held fairly steady around £86-88m. Therefore the 2017 fees were around 6.5% so the OGC/TER would be above that and well above a typical 2.5% because performance fees are usually left out of OGC/TER calculations, for some reason that I've never understood.

Note that "The terms and operations of the Incentive Agreement are due to be reviewed with effect from 7 July 2019."

Perhaps it is time we gave some input into what we would like to see in next year's revisions?

Kidman wrote:Perhaps it is time we gave some input into what we would like to see in next year's revisions?

Share holders and the manager have done well from this one - mainly because Go Outdoors rose spectacularly. The directors have actually cut the regular annual dividend from five to four pence already this year.

I want to see the manager rewarded for exceptional performance but this must be over and above a target. If the target was 5 pence per year in dividends it would help but it would be better is it was a total return base so I would suggest that the manager is only given an extra reward when annual dividends are above 5 pence and the total return has averaged, say 8%, over the previous four years, Maybe there should also be a mechanism to take money off the bonus for companies which were selected by the manger but which failed and the investment written off.

In the BSV annual report issued in July, they mentioned on page 5 an investment into Ncam Technologies Ltd. partly to help them expand into the USA with a new office.
In July's 'Broadcast Film & Video' magazine on page 3, there is the announcement of Ncam's new VP of North American sales, Morgan Beall.

It's nice to see our money being used as planned and with rapid effect. Let's hope good results follow.

BSC have announced an intention to launch a full prospectus offer for 2018/19 in the BSC2 half year report.

Further details to be announced but as it's a prospectus offer it's likely to be a chunky raise.

Both have posted interims today

https://www.investegate.co.uk/british-s ... 02%20Alert

and

https://www.investegate.co.uk/british-s ... 7s%20Alert

Nothing really of note except they intend to raise yet more money to add to their cash piles which are above 20% of total assets with a mere dribble going to new investments in the past 6 months. £30 million plus over allotment of £5 million.

Interesting comments on preference shares

Due to the repayment of loans and the different financing structures of new investments there has been a significant change in the nature of the Company's income. Newer investments now include lower levels of debt and higher levels of preference shares, which means that a growing proportion of income now derives from preference dividends. In addition, where new investments are re-investing their profits to fund growth, the payment of dividends and interest is often deferred until a sale.

Whilst income in the period was slightly higher than the same period last year, this derived principally from preference dividends as referred to above - the receipt of which is anticipated to be less predictable than the interest income from more mature investments.

I just love this bit

In addition, where new investments are re-investing their profits to fund growth, the payment of dividends and interest is often deferred until a sale

They fail to point out that this should mean an increase in valuation and far from being a bad thing it is a way of investing n a company without breaking any investment limits or other rules.

I am disappointed that they are not paying a further interim dividend. I would like to have seen some of the gains paid out before the new shares, to be issued from the fund-raise, dilute the distributable reserves.

By post yesterday I received:
British Smaller Companies (single page) announcing the Interim Accounts
British Smaller Companies Interim Report (23 page booklet)
BSC Recommended proposals to approve changes to Fee arrangements with the Company's Advisers (single page).
BSC Recommended proposals to approve changes to the Company's Incentive agreement (and General Meeting Notice) (16 pages)
BSC and BSC 2 £30M Joint Offer (single page)
BSC and BSC 2 Investor Guide £30 million Joint Offer (4 pages)
Application form - for Joint Offer (filled in with my particulars)
Notes on how to complete the Application Form.

I have had a look at the proposed changes to the Fee/Incentive arrangements, and although the principle seems sound, I would like to have seen calculations of the amount paid under the new arrangements, compared to those due under the old arrangements, for some likely scenarios. So I have no idea how this change will affect the amount of fees likely to be paid.

On the Joint offer - I have received no prospectus and no indication of the charges. The Wealth Club seem to have got off the mark promptly, and are stating that the initial charge will be 4.5% (steep!), and they will reduce this by 2%. So if I naively complete the (partially filled in) form supplied by BSC, it seems I will pay an extra 2% for the privilege! However this is speculation, since BSC appear not to have supplied any information on charges in all of the paperwork which I have received.

You need to access the online Securities Note and Application Form (not included in the posted information) for further information and worked examples of the charges, depending on how you decide to apply for the shares. Wealth Club is the cheapest way that I have seen, although I suspect that they have reduced the commission rebates form the levels that used to be offered by Club Finance (RIP).

james188 wrote:You need to access the online Securities Note and Application Form (not included in the posted information) for further information and worked examples of the charges, depending on how you decide to apply for the shares. Wealth Club is the cheapest way that I have seen, although I suspect that they have reduced the commission rebates form the levels that used to be offered by Club Finance (RIP).

Many thanks for the clarification. I have downloaded the document, although at first glance it is far from clear as to what is the cheapest way of purchasing their shares.
And also, to put it mildly, I find it surprising that they bombard me with repetitive information on their offer, and provide a partially filled in application form, but fail to include, in their post, the most basic information on charges.