The Lemon Fool

Hi all,

I was wondering what seasoned VCT-ers opinion is of Octopus Apollo VCT?

I wanted to make a last minute VCT invest to alleviate some tax and I am looking into the above so would welcome any feedback, experiences or otherwise opinion relating to it!

Thank you in advance.

Same fees as Titan, less likely to perform well.

It's a low risk-reward mandate with a mediocre track record and high fees.

I think I can say what's good about it in a couple of points:
1. Compared to others in that low-risk-reward space, I think it's performed rather better than the main surviving rival, Downing. Though Albion also has a foot in that camp and a more impressive record.
2. They appear to manage the discount well.

Uncle
Historically you are spot on, however I think that now they have shed most of their energy interests and are concentrating on investing in slightly later stage businesses than Titan it may well be worth giving them the benefit of the doubt for a few years ?
I got my feet wet in December to buy in with no fees, a wealthclub deal, purely at nav and was delighted to see the rns this month to say the nav is up 10.1% from Dec issue of shares. Octopus do charge high end fees but they have had some significant successes over the years and I feel Apollo could fit in quite nicely.
Time alone will tell though....

In the past I have been pleased with my VCT returns by simply looking at the AIC site and basing my selection on what is available and the 5yr Total Return figures. A quick look shows for 1yr 5yr and 10yr Titan -2.3% , 10% , 125% and Apollo 18.3% , 30.1% 72.2%. So if you plan on recycling every 5yrs it's Apollo all the way. However if you put it in a world tracker you probably would do better depending on your tax situation.


Best wishes,

SB.

Bit misunderstood is Apollo.

Five years ago it was 'the boring VCT' from Octopus and had so called 'safe' (energy) assets which have underperformed.

It went through a teenage phase of being into its big brother’s record collection (i.e. coinvesting with Titan)

For a few years now it's been effectively under new management (Octopus Development Capital team) investing only in in more mature technology companies.

Key is to look forward at portfolio prospects, not back at 5yr returns weighed down by write offs / sub par exits of older investments.

I helped myself to a small slice this year.

Sinterklaas
I believe you are correct, they are a different animal after the reshuffle of last year or so, I could not resist the 0% offer by wealthclub in December before the divi.
However I was not expecting the very good news that wealthclub sent round last week saying that one of Apollo's larger holdings, Simply Cook, first investment 2018, was exited as Nestle bought them in February. Apparently we need to wait until May when Apollo produces its annual report due out in May to read the full details. The nav went up 10.1% from the Dec 18 allocation and March, which presumably was largely down to this under reported event.
I have tried emailing Apollo but no answer as yet, when I hear I'll post the response, I just wish I'd bought more but it is ever thus !

Apollo did respond & confirmed, as I had surmised, that the 10.1% uplift in NAV in March RNS did indeed reflect the sale of the food box investment.
Not a bad start to the year, for sure, let us holders hope that Octopus can feed us a few more like it, especially with their current extended fundraise increasing the size of the vct substantially over that of a year ago.

Splendid. So my holding (cost £5k before tax relief, seven years ago) is now valued at £2265.

Though there was a big return-of-capital in 2016 and 2017, with divis totalling £2184 over those two years.

Thank you all, brill feedback!
Just for the record I did make the move and bought into Apollo eventually.

12.7% total return in the year to 31 Jan; July dividend on way (3.6p total in year, NAV/share of 49.2p)
https://www.londonstockexchange.com/new ... t/14976679

Plus 2 post period end exits of top 10 holdings, not in report.

Not bad