7th Feb 2020 10:41
(Alliance News) - Albion Venture Capital Trust PLC on Thursday reported a marginal improvement in its net asset value performance in the final quarter of 2019.
In addition, the investment company said Director Jeff Warren died on January 5 after serving on the board for 12 years.
Albion VCT said it will undertake a formal selection process with a view to appointing a new director and chair of the Remuneration Committee in due course.
Turning back to results, the company said NAV as at the end of 2019 stood at 78.20 pence a share, an increase of 0.3% over the quarter.
Following the 2.50p a share dividend payment at the end of January, Albion VCT said its NAV was reduced to 75.70p a share.
During the three months to December 31, the company said it has made a GBP1.1 million new investment in Cantab Research Ltd, a provider of low-footprint automated speech recognition.
It also made five follow-on investments during the quarter, totalling GBP315,000 and disposed two investments, worth GBP5.6 million.
Albion VCT said it will report its 2019 results on February 5.
Meanwhile, the company said it carried out a consultation with shareholders who voted against the resolutions proposed at the annual general meeting on August 21. At the time, only 70% of Albion VCT's shareholders approved the changes to its management agreement.
Of the total number of shares that voted against the resolution, the company said shareholders representing 59% were contacted directly by the chair, but Albion VCT said there was no clear unanimous reason for the opposition to the proposed changes.
Albion VCT said it carried out further analysis on the management performance incentive arrangements across the VCT industry and said the results of this analysis further reinforced its views that the new performance incentive scheme was a "fair and effective scheme".
Albion had set the manager's performance incentive fee at 20% of the excess profits above the agreed hurdle, up from 8% previously.
"Nevertheless, taking into account the views expressed by some shareholders at the annual general meeting and in our subsequent consultation, the board has re-negotiated with the manager to reduce the hurdle from 20% to 15% which will be deemed to have taken effect from April," the company said in its statement Friday.
The stock was untraded in London on Friday, last closing at 71.98 pence a share.
By Evelina Grecenko; [email protected]
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