VCT AGMs - worth attending?

[sinterklaas]

What are your thoughts. Would you travel / go out of your way for an AGM?

Not in the case of a shareholder uprising, I mean just in the normal run of being an investor. What do they usually comprise? Just coffee and a run-through of the formalities, or something more substatial? Who puts on the best? / worst? etc.

[Kidman]

I go to VCT AGMs based on the same criteria as going to any AGM. That is, in short, I want to ask questions or complain.

I may want to ask questions with a view to increased investment, hold or divestment. I may want to complain as we have done at Foresight AGMs because the directors weren't doing thier job sorting out the managers who weren't doing their job!

On top of that there are the usual decision criteria such as, do I have the day free, how much will the coach to London cost, are the costs in proportion to my investment, do I have a reasonable prospect of achieving anything?

Generally with VCT and investment trust AGMs, the talk from the investment manager is not of so much interest as talking to them informally afterwards, and I am fairly turned off by staged performances of investee companies who say that the managers are supporting them well.

[Kidman]

What are your thoughts. Would you travel / go out of your way for an AGM?

A further thought.
The start time of an AGM can be important.
I don't want to get up at 5 a.m. to get an early coach to London. Many shareholders want to travel by train after 09:30 so as to be able to use cheap day return tickets. Lunchtime or afternoons suit me best.

[BusyBumbleBee]

Best AGMS are the ALBION AGMS. Well attended, Good venue, good lunch, good knowledgeable speakers, and plenty of time to talk to investment manager and directors and other investors. They give a good insight into the VCT world in general - and a smoking room to boot.

[sinterklaas]

Brilliant. A smoking room? Where is it held? Is that even allowed any more?

I'm not in Albions but definitely sounds like they're the ones setting the bar… either way, shareholders must be happy because they always seem to sell out their offer

[BusyBumbleBee]

Brilliant. A smoking room? Where is it held? Is that even allowed any more?

Here is a clip from their last Annual report.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual General Meeting of Albion Venture Capital Trust PLC (the “Company”) will be held
at the City of London Club, 19 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1DS on 14 August 2017 at 11:00 am for the following purpose:

VERY civilised and the rooms are built round a hole in the middle open to the air - which has been turned into an up market smoking area - sofas, coffee tables gas heaters etc.

Note also the time of day which gives most investors the chance to get in on a cheap train - two hour meeting and then a very good lunch at 1 p.m. Then plenty of time to catch an off-peak train home.

I guess you only need a few shares to get in (which you can buy in the secondary marker) and there are five Albion VCTs to choose from.

[UncleEbenezer]

Brilliant. A smoking room? Where is it held? Is that even allowed any more?

Here is a clip from their last Annual report.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual General Meeting of Albion Venture Capital Trust PLC (the “Company”) will be held
at the City of London Club, 19 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1DS on 14 August 2017 at 11:00 am for the following purpose:

VERY civilised and the rooms are built round a hole in the middle open to the air - which has been turned into an up market smoking area - sofas, coffee tables gas heaters etc.

You're putting me right off. That kind of arrangement always leads to some inside parts stinking of smoke.

Note also the time of day which gives most investors the chance to get in on a cheap train - two hour meeting and then a very good lunch at 1 p.m. Then plenty of time to catch an off-peak train home.

11a.m.? That's a train the previous day, and overnight in town. Or at least a sleeper train, which was pretty ghastly last time I tried it.

All AGMs of listed companies - VCTs obviously included - should be available to attend online!

[scotia]

All AGMs of listed companies - VCTs obviously included - should be available to attend online!

Agreed! What a waste of resources requiring shareholders to travel into London to hear presentations that can be simply transmitted over the Web. And questions can also be posed online. This is not difficult to achieve.

[sinterklaas]

Seconded (or thirded)… Tritax Big Box IT’s AGM was done in that way this week. Breath of fresh air. Also allows you to listen again.

Why do you think they don't? Not in their interests to invite more scrutiny?

[BusyBumbleBee]

All AGMs of listed companies - VCTs obviously included - should be available to attend online!

Agreed! What a waste of resources requiring shareholders to travel into London to hear presentations that can be simply transmitted over the Web. And questions can also be posed online. This is not difficult to achieve.

I for one like to actually see and communicate with people and to judge the atmosphere in a room. Its amazing to see how some boards react when under pressure from real live people. When you can look a director in the eye he can't dodge. In many ways its like going to an auction - where you can see the other people bidding: but maybe a compromise would be best where those who can't travel could attend electronically - but to arrange the order of speaking could be interesting. Be careful what you ask for here : VCTs are small companies often with a core of small, knowledgeable shareholders. We have seen how boards under pressure can mobilise a vote to go along with them.

By the way Timbo, Tolmers, myself and others did manage to persuade one set of directors to put out the presentations on an RNS when the meeting started so that all investors could see them at the same time.

[scotia]

but maybe a compromise would be best where those who can't travel could attend electronically

I would be quite happy with a live AGM as at the moment, but with online viewing and online interaction possible - rather like most modern auctions are run. With VCTs, I suspect it would lead to a (possibly slightly) increased participation of knowledgeable investors who would not be soft-soaped by the Board.

[UncleEbenezer]

but maybe a compromise would be best where those who can't travel could attend electronically - but to arrange the order of speaking could be interesting.

An issue I've dealt with myself a number of times in work, meeting and conference situations.

Meetings that mix people present in a room with remote participants can be hard if everyone wants to get up and speak. But that's not necessary for an AGM: we can do better.

One solution I find works very well is that the meeting is broadcast one-way as a live stream over the 'net. We then operate a parallel text-only channel over IRC or other chat medium, and assign someone present at the meeting (e.g. the secretary) to watch the channel and relay questions from distant shareholders like Scotia and myself. Or even give us pseudo-live presence by projecting the chat channel onto a big screen for the benefit of attendees present.

The chat log then becomes an appendix to the meeting report.

Be careful what you ask for here : VCTs are small companies often with a core of small, knowledgeable shareholders.

Some of whom can't attend in person but would like to be enfranchised.

[scotia]

UncleEbenezer - Agreed.
And I would also like to add that its not that I can't attend - its because it would be economic madness to attend AGMs for all of my 19 VCTs, travelling from Scotland.

[naflod]

UncleE and Scotia

I concur wholeheartedly with you both. Leeds is equally impractical for getting to AGMs and the one crumb that we had, the Albion northern investor meeting in Harrogate stopped a few years back and, with the Crown Hotel now sold from the portfolio, unlikely to return.

Live video streaming go some way towards easing the disenfranchisement of those of us outside the London area.

naflod

[sinterklaas]

Interesting discussion emerging here. I hadn’t given much thought to the practical impossibility of coming from scotland / devon / leeds etc. So are we saying that no VCTs, as far as we know, have done an webcast / online participation AGM?

Notice Octopus’ AGM in London last week only had votes representing 2.8% of shareholdings. Perhaps that's typical but it sounds low to me.

Thinking about VCTs vs other listed companies, if anything you'd hope they'd be a model for ordinary shareholder engagement, since you have so many more individual shareholders and it's their personal assets, vs. the larger institutional shareholdings and professional asset managers at other company AGMs including investment trusts.