2019/2020 VCT raises - where will you put your money?

[shootingstar]

I appreciate this board a lot for the insights and info it provides on the many VCT's out there...but find there is not too much comment or discussion on here around what people feel are likely to be the most fruitful VCTs over time, how they compare against each other and which raises might be worth backing in the current tax year.

Would anyone be willing to share their summary thoughts on where they will put their money this year and why? This is clearly subject to quite a bit subjectivity and personal circumstance...but perhaps people are spotting interesting opportunities out there that others don't know about e.g. unrealised value in portfolios (hidden gems), potential for big special dividends, recent realisations, attractive fees, amazing investment teams.
An attempt by me to get this started is below, but i certainly don't know the entire market as well as others. Over time I have done well with my VCT choices but got seriously burnt on Edge Performance - which is a complete disaster.

Where i may invest this year (current rough ranking)
1. Northern- i am already currently invested and think there is probably latent value in their portfolio (assets in NAV below their true value if sold). I'm in all 3 but with more in 1 and 2 (better liquidity perhaps). Tim Levett comes across very well. also low fees and tends to be low discount to NAV

2. Baronsmead AIM - I think they have a decent top 10 in terms of the quality of the companies they own, though to be fair im not 100% sure on the quality of the people running it

3. Albion - i have money in Albion Venture capital trust and Crown Place, mainly i was attracted to the asset backing. both seem to be doing well from a NAV perspective..but i was deeply disappointed by the fees debacle on Albion venture capital trust (i have lost trust) and not sure if they can make the transition to early stage investments successfully. still, the asset backing vs other VCTs remains attractive

4. Mobeus Income and Growth 2 - currently invested in this and was surprised to recently get a bumper dividend though one disadvantage seems to be a high performance fee (when comparing with Northern VCTs for instance)

Others I want to research further: Amati AIM, Octopus AIM, Maven

Where I am less inclined to invest
1. Pembroke - may be wrong on this, but i fear they may have too much aggressively valued consumer exposure. maybe the Five Guys stake will get valued up over time. not sure on the other companies.
2. Octopus Titan - i read the recent WealthClub research. I feel they are just as asset gathering machine..taking in investors money and sitting on it. Crazy amount of cash as a % of NAV already and now they want to raise more money!
3. Hargreave Hale AIM - i own shares, happy with the dividends but my impression is they have struggled recently on investment performance.

anyone else willing to share their thoughts?

[barchid]

Shootingstar
Well where to start ?
Northern & Albion I think we have pretty much similar views, Baronsmead & Mobus I hold no opinion, but of the others, Pembroke I have dabbled small in 2017, 18 & 19. I am a bit nervous on their consumer focus but it is very high end and that tends to work in London where most (certainly the fashion/apparel) investments are based. Not being personally knowledgeable on the comfort or not of ladies tights I did some (verbal) research with young ladies of my acquaintance and the result of that was their investment in Heist seems to be doing very well indeed. The founder of Oakley, Peter Dubens, always puts plenty of his skin in his game and this year again he has invested the full £200,000 allowed as tax offsetable. Which is why I applied again this year in time for the earlybird discount.
Another one you did not mention was Maven and I find them very sound, also I like the fact that the Maven board, led by Bill Nixon, always put their money where there mouth is, like Pembroke, whilst Albion directors are much less likely to have sizeable sums invested
Octopus is way too big, imho, and their most recent investments have been less than stellar, e.g Eve Sleep, so like you I'm avoiding it.
Hargreave I think is a good bet, maybe especially so this year as AIM has had such a poor past 12 months, but if you go for that which I think I will then perhaps you should also consider Amati ?
Again HHV & ATI both have managers holding substantial amounts of their own stocks.
Does this help ?

[scotia]

In my view, the major problem lies in guessing which managers will perform best under the new rules. I suspect that there may be a poor correlation between past and forward performance. If I thought the AIM market had bottomed out, I would favour Amati, although both myself and my wife already have reasonable holdings - so I won't be rushing, particularly since Amati have frequent launches. Northern is another of our favourites - so should we go for more? Possibly. Looking at recent performance, I don't think we will bother with more Baronsmead this year. Maven - we have small holdings which have performed reasonably, but the sizeable discount works against them if you are proposing to sell after 5 years. My Mobeus shares have performed satisfactorily, but I was disappointed when IGV and MIG4 cancelled their DRIS. So far I think that Proven are only offering PGOO, which has performed less well than PVN. I'd be happy to consider PVN, if offered. I have been happy with British Smaller Cos - and I like its DRIS scheme. I don't know if it will be on offer this year. And Pembroke - its investments are quite unlike those of any other VCT, and I will agree that they all seem to be in companies pandering to young high aspirants. So it certainly provides diversification.
I think we will be investing less in VCTs than in recent years, and I'll probably only purchase sufficient to replace my sales.

[james188]

The PGOO open offer is what is left (not much) from the launch much earlier this year. I gather that both ProVen VCTs are likely to launch fresh offers later this year. We will no doubt find out more later this month or in early November (the annual shareholder event is in mid-November.

I have always thought that the ProVen VCTs get rather less attention and credit than the likes of Northern, Mobeus and Baronsmead - all of which I also hold. It is a bit odd, because, unlike most of the leading houses, ProVen didn't have to adjust their focus (or manager team) to adapt to the new rules and their performance has been very good, particularly in recent years.I hold both, because there are still differences in their portfolios.The consequence was that last year, ProVen had the better record on realisations, but PGOO did better in 2017.