27th Mar 2019 18:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Mobeus Income & Growth VCT PLC on Wednesday said its net asset value declined in 2018 due to losses incurred from the sale of Fullfield Ltd and Hemmels Ltd.
As at December 31, the venture capital trust's net asset value stood at 70.25 pence per share, down 2.1% from 71.75p per share the year before.
The company realised a loss of GBP326,686 from its investment in classic car seller Hemmels after a partial exit and permanent impairment of its holding. Moreover, the trust also realised a GBP785,876 loss from its full exit of valet services and vehicle cleaning company Fullfield Ltd.
The company is proposing a final dividend of 5.00p per share, up from 3.00p per share the year before. This takes Mobeus I&G VCT's total dividend for the year to 7.00p per share, less than half its 16.00p per share dividend the year before.
Mobeus I&G VCT Chair Clive Boothman said: "While the new growth capital element of the portfolio is still young, both your board and the investment adviser will seek to assess, balance and diversify the risks within the growing proportion of the overall portfolio that these investments will represent."
Boothman added: "Investing in such earlier stage companies does involve increased risk and those that succeed often take longer to achieve scale. Returns may, therefore, take longer to emerge and may be more volatile. Unfortunately, the least successful investments are likely to emerge before the most successful. Thus, we might anticipate a slower rate of financial progress in the earlier years for the growth capital portfolio, hopefully offset by more significant longer-term gains."
Shares in Mobeus I&G VCT closed down 1.6% at 60.50p on Wednesday.
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