By ADRIAN LOWCOCK 20/11/2009
This week, Ventus has announced the launch of a top-up offer that is available to their existing VCT shareholders. The top-up will only be available until Friday 18th December (but may close earlier if the maximum subscription is reached).
Who are Ventus?
Ventus are investment specialist focusing on investment in companies developing and constructing renewable energy projects in the UK. They first launched a VCT in 2005 and followed that up with others in 2006. Since launch, the first Ventus VCT has paid out a total of 11.9p in tax free dividends and the share price is up 19%
Top-up offer
Ventus are looking to raise £3.5 million in total from the new issue. £1.5 million will be attributed to the first VCT with £1 million going to Ventus VCT 2 and 3. The Top-up will dilute the existing portfolio. Investors will only be able to access top-up shares in the VCT to which they originally subscribed to.
Risk
Owing to the nature of their underlying assets, VCTs are highly illiquid. Investors should be aware that they may have difficulty or be unable to realise their shares at levels close to the net asset value. They are only suitable for UK resident taxpayers who can tolerate higher risk and have an investment time horizon of greater than five years. The top-up offer is only open to existing shareholders. If you are not an existing investor and are interested in investing in VCTs we recommend you speak to one of our advisers before doing so. Any investment should only be made once you have read the offer document.
Our view
Ventus have been very successful in their chosen market, the technology has been well proven and VCTs should be capable of generating a high reasonably stable dividend yield. We continue to rate the Ventus VCT, Ventus VCT 2 and Ventus VCT 3 highly and we have awarded them four stars.
The demand for the top-up could be high, investors may need to act now for their application to be accepted. Please download and read the joint application form and offer documentation before returning them to Bestinvest. We recommend you speak to one of our Investment Advisers before applying, to ensure that the investment is suitable and meets your needs, by calling us on 020 7189 9999.