Albion Top Up Offer Now Live

[Gostevie]

This year's Albion top up offer is now live on its website:

https://www.albion.capital/investor-cen ... ent-offers

My intention at the moment is to invest equally across all six VCTs. Does anybody have any better/alternative suggestions?

Gostevie

[oxmatt]

If you think all six are equal otherwise then it might be worth considering the status of the performance fee hurdles as some of the funds are quite out of the money so won't be paying a performance fee until quite a bit of performance has been caught up (or the fees are renegotiated). Whereas some are currently paying perf fees or are very close to their hurdles. Of course this is just one of many considerations you might have in differentiating the different funds and can be viewed positively and negatively.

[Mark]

For what it's worth, in previous top-ups I have weighted my investments in Albion towards AVCT and KAY based on historic performance.

[Gostevie]

I've just been going through the prospectus and it reveals (pp. 22-23) that there are some changes on the horizon at Albion.

* Patrick Reeve "will be changing to part-time chairman on 1 April 2019".

* Will Fraser-Allen "will become managing partner on 1 April 2019".

* Henry Stanford "will be retiring from a full time role on 1 April 2019".

Personally I am not unduly concerned by any of this. Patrick is nearly 59^ and has many other senior positions so it doesn't seem unreasonable that he wants to move on to a less hands-on role but will still be there to oversee things. Will (aged 48) has been deputy managing partner for many years and knows the company inside out, so it seems like sensible succession planning is in place.

Henry (aged 53) has - as I understand it - largely been responsible for the asset-based portfolio which is "expected to reduce over time" due to "recent changes in VCT legislation" (p.16) so the stepping back from a full time role is probably logical.

Anyway, just thought I'd flag it up for anyone who hasn't yet ploughed through the prospectus but might be interested.

Gostevie

^ Ages taken from Companies House profiles

[Mainwaring]

Pleased to see my cheque has been cashed for AAVC. I went direct, existing holder.....portfolio rooted in old money will morph slowly towards higher risk investments. Albion have a good record there too. Suits me fine.

[barchid]

Mainwaring, I did the same as you, both in the choice of trust and by going direct as an existing Albion investor.
I always go direct for VCT's but Wealthclub claim they are cheaper than going direct, is that really true or is there a catch ?

[Gostevie]

Pleased to see my cheque has been cashed for AAVC. I went direct, existing holder.

That's interesting. I did the same but my cheque hasn't been cashed yet. Hopefully by the end of the week.

portfolio rooted in old money will morph slowly towards higher risk investments. Albion have a good record there too.

Agree completely.

Gostevie

[Mainwaring]

Barchid
I always treat claims with some reservation. I think all the platforms are about the same on the terms of an initial commission rebate where one is offered by the VCT. Direct v Intermediary looks generally neutral. In this instance I noted the only difference was a Wealthclub 0.1% trail commission for 3 years less income tax. Amounts to the square root of bu88er all. Cavendish offer a better trail rebate but they make a charge to set you up on their platform. In the course of things and on larger investments I suspect Cav are cheaper that WC.
I figured going direct, immediately even though 6pm launch, and first class post would have me near the front row. AAVC usually sell out almost immediately. I guess we’ll see shortly.
WC have my contact details as they bought my preferred agent, Clubfinance. Not yet used WC. Marketing Feels a bit pushy especially towards EIS risks and the are chipping my Clubfinance trail....in fact I haven’t had a rebate at all since......
Regards

[marcop]

I have just subscribed via Cavendish. I believe I'll eventually get back all the trail commission: .4% pa minus tax, minus a £10 fee pa. And I paid £35 up front.

Different question ... has anyone got a link to a more up to date Tax Efficient Review of Albion? A Google search gives me access to the 2016/17 assessment which is a really interesting and thorough analysis but I can't find a more recent one. I even considered subscribing but they say it is only for IFAs.

[james188]

Until a few years ago, you could subscribe to the TEF - and I did, for that matter. As you say, that option is no longer available, due to regulatory requirements which were meant to protect the private investor, but in practice just restrict information. The same problem applies to broker notes, even for HNWI /Sophisticated Investors. We have gone materially backwards.

Some promoters/managers paid TEF to enable reports to be made available to potential investors. I think that applied to the report that you mention - and a number of others, e.g. ProVen. However, I have noticed that TEF reports are not being made available for offers I have looked at this tax year (or last, for that matter). It may be because the sponsors do not see the need to pay for that analysis in order to secure the funds that they are seeking. In any event, the end result is that investors have less independent analysis, unless they pay the extra commission charged by an IFA. A very poor result.

[barchid]

I see there is a note on Albion's website saying that the earlybird offer closed fully subscribed for all 6 funds this week.
I don't see an RNS to that effect but I guess their website is accurate.

[onslow]

Thought I wouldn't invest in any more VCTs this year after large(for me!) investment in 2017/18 and in Hazel last October, however decided to put a chunk into AAVC, sent off my cheque this morning

Yes, I'm an idiot for not taking advantage of the early bird offer,
seeing over 80% the the portfolio in nice unlisted asset backed investments proved too tempting. Dividend yield nice too, moreso when you include the 30% tax relief "discount"!

Hopefully the offer remains open for at least another couple of days!

[Kidman]

Hopefully the offer remains open for at least another couple of days!

On the 13th February AAVC elected to exercise its over-allotment facility raising the issue limit to £8m.
That should increase your chances of success.

[onslow]

Thanks Kidman - cheque cashed today so presumably my application was successful

[BusyBumbleBee]

So today AAVC offer closed : the other five are still open see https://www.investegate.co.uk/albion-ve ... st%20Alert