Guinness EIS Funds

[JT1001]

Does anyone have any experience good or bad with Guinness EIS funds , I know there have been a fair few over the years but the fees have tended to be on the high side and since I could achieve my requirements with VCTs I have gone for them. This year though I am lucky enough to have some CGT to defer so am looking at EIS investments and one that looks interesting is the Guinness AIM EIS.
This will be an approved EIS fund so investors get the benefit of only getting one EIS cert which makes the paperwork nice and easy, also the fees actually look alright for an EIS fund 2.75% upfront (with Clubfinance) and 1.75% per annum with 20% performance fee on returns over £1 , I appreciate they are not bargain fees but are not too disproportionate to VCT fees and much lower than I have seen before.
Guinness have run funds for a number of years now so should have the experience to do a good job but thought I'd throw it out there to the boards in case anyone has an experience to share with them or indeed with EIS funds in general.

[Kidman]

I used to consider Guinness to be the experts in energy funds but of course they are now disallowed for EIS/VCT investments. Over the years I have received several of the Guinness EIS fund prospectuses but have never invested in them. They are certainly one of the first I would consider when looking for an EIS fund but I would have liked to see some historic performance data in their literature (and yes we all know past performance is no guide to the future, but...).
One other I have looked at for several years is Anglo Scientific, probably a very different style to Guinness.

As to why I haven't invested, I haven't had enough tax capacity at the time of receiving the literature.

[Vulgaris]

I invested in their 2014 offering, now in the process of being liquidated. Shares they invested in, and very approx gains/ losses (many remain to be sold) were

AFH financial services 67% gain
Angle c. 50% loss
APC Technology 90% loss
Bilby flat
Byotrol flat
Chapel down 250% gain
Coral products flat
Eagle Eye 67% gain
Ergomed 50% gain
Fairfx 100% gain
Heartstone Inns - never listed on AIM, can't value
Premier Tech services 300% gain
Photonstar 80% loss
SRT Marine systems 100% gain
EG Solutions 100% gain
Tavistock 50% loss
Union Jack Oil 50% loss
Venn 25%

Sums are complicated because (a) all charges hit at the end and (b) loss relief vs. income tax can be clawed back for
shares that have performed poorly, boosting the return and (c) amounts invested varied substantially among holdings.

Overall, and barring disasters with shares still held, I'd anticipate that each £1 invested (70p after EIS relief) should have grown to about £1.20-1.30 after all charges. I've been sufficiently satisfied to put up more money at the end of 2016/17.

There is an outline of performance to end 2016 in the Tax Efficient Review, reproduced on Guinness' website http://www.guinnessfunds.com/wp-content ... v-2016.pdf

[Karellan]

or indeed with EIS funds in general.

I second that , I think it would be very good and probably about time to hear more about EIS funds.