Investec Structured Products has raised £3.8m for its first VCT launch. The venture capital trust, which is run in partnership with Calculus Capital, will invest in a combination of structured products and venture capital investments.
Although the trust has raised less than he would have liked, Investec Structured Products head of intermediary sales Gary Dale says the group has achieved the goal of expanding its investor base.
“We would have liked to have raised more, but we launched at the beginning of March and were unable to get much momentum as most advisers had already given their tax advice,” he says
“Success was not the number we sold but the clients we reached and we were able to sell to more discretionary wealth managers.”
They plan to launch a second round of fundraising this year, either at the end of Q2 or in Q3.
When Investec first announced the launch it said the trust’s initial aim would be to achieve an annual dividend for five years of 5.25p per share plus a return of 43.75p per share after five and half years by way of a special dividend or a cash tender offer for shares.
The structured products within the portfolio are managed by Investec and have simple defined returns based on the FTSE 100 index.
