Rob Morgan of Hargreaves Lansdown reviews the Maven VCT top-up offer

Independent financial advisory firm, Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), recently reviewed the newly launched Maven VCT top-up offers which are now open for investment.

Rob Morgan, Financial Analyst at HL, details the offers, Maven’s VCT investment strategy and the competitive advantage Maven has when investing in the UK oil & gas industry. Read what Rob has to say below:

“Maven has announced a new top-up offer into four of their established VCTs. Maven Income & Growth, Maven Income & Growth 2, Maven Income & Growth 3 and Maven Income & Growth 5. With the exception of Maven Income & Growth 5 (an AIM VCT in transition to becoming 'generalist') they are all traditional, generalist VCT portfolios invested in a broad range of sectors and types of company.

Maven invests in well established, entrepreneurial businesses and their approach is relatively conservative in the context of VCTs (where the risks are higher than mainstream investments), focusing on good-quality firms with limited borrowing. They are not tied to any sector or type of business so the trusts are fairly diverse. However, an area where Maven has a genuine edge is in the oil and gas services industry through their Aberdeen office, an area their rivals have been unable to penetrate.

Most Maven investments are structured so that the majority of investment is in the form of a loan to the underlying companies, helping control risk and provide a steady level of dividends. Given the maturity of each portfolio dividends should be payable from an early stage. The participating VCTs have produced a blended tax-free yield of over 5% per annum over the past six years assuming an equally weighted investment without the effect of the initial tax relief, though past performance is not a guide to future returns.

I believe Maven Capital Partners has one of the best resourced and most capable VCT management teams and their network of six regional offices has sourced a consistent flow of good-quality VCT assets. They have also demonstrated a commitment to providing a high level of regular dividends. Given the modest fund raising of £5.5m I believe it is likely to sell out rapidly.”