Northern venture capital trusts promote joint share offers to raise £50m

Three Northern capital trusts have launched joint offers for subscription in order to raise £50m.

Northern Venture Trust, Northern 2 VCT and Northern 3 VCT, all managed by the NVM Private Equity, will raise the funds to be invested in later-stage unquoted UK businesses.

The three VCTs aim to provide investors with high long-term tax-free returns through a combination of dividend yield and capital growth.

Tim Levett, chairman of NVM Private Equity, commented: “Due to the overwhelming demand for our Northern Venture Trust and Northern 2 VCT linked share issue at the beginning of 2013, we decided to give investors the opportunity to participate in a larger offering across all three of our VCTs. This will provide us with more funds to invest in businesses across the UK – further strengthening our portfolio.”

Over the past 12 months, NVM’s funds have invested a total of over £30 million in six growing businesses: Silverwing, Haystack Dryers, Intuitive, Cleveland Biotech (Holdings), Kirton Group and Buoyant Holdings.

There have also been some profitable exits from the portfolio, with the sales of Paladin Group, Interlube Systems, Tikit Group and IG Doors taking place in the same period, delivering combined income and capital proceeds for the VCTs of over £27 million.

Mr Levett continued: “Our Northern VCTs are well-established funds with a policy of investing jointly in new opportunities. Currently, over 85% of their VCT-qualifying portfolios are commonly held in 33 investments across a range of different industry sectors. Investors in the new share offers will therefore gain immediate exposure to a common portfolio of mature and diverse smaller UK companies with high growth potential.”

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