The Lemon Fool

Amati have just announced as a result of their ongoing strategic review to pay a special dividend of 10p a share in June as a result of high cash levels & nowhere suitable to invest their cash at present.
Difficult markets for sure but not exactly a vote of confidence in the company is it ?
Still better to have the cash than another dubious investment in AIM I guess, certainly they have made some big calls the past few years which have not worked out at all well for them...

Just a note for DRIS participants. The announcement states that DRIS is not available for this special dividend, quite logical as they have no use for the cash>

Given that today we hear Keywords Studios, Amati vct's largest single stock holding at 4.7% of the fund as of 31 Jan with the shares then at 1666p, is now under a bid with their shares today at around £24, one wonders if there could be another cash divi on the horizon ?
We know that the board are discussing a possible change of investment policy and are also aware that their cash balance is too high for comfort at present & with no new AIM placings currently which are vct eligible, my gut feel is they may find this latest dollop of cash will put them too close to their allowable limit again, hence another payout is far from impossible imho.

The AIM VCTs (Amati, Octopus and Hargreave Hale) have certainly had a rough time. Looking at the total return figures from Hargreaves Lansdown, they all peaked around Autumn 2021, and have subsequently crashed :-


Those who have held their investment for 5 years should make a modest return on the tax break - provided they were purchased as new issues. However, if it is AMATI's apparent belief that cash is more attractive than further AIM investments, then I suspect that matters will not improve for 3-year holders.
Note - care should be taken when interpreting total return, since this will be based on market price and dividend. It does not include the tax rebate, nor does it consider the Initial price of a new issue.
Currently I only hold the AMATI VCTs - most of which (new purchases and DRIS) are around the 5 year hold.
I previously held Octopus and Hargreave Hale.
(Apologies if I have mis-typed any of the numbers)