Noble Income & Growth VCT PLC
19 September 2007
NOBLE INCOME & GROWTH VCT plc
INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
FOR THE 3 MONTHS TO 31 JULY 2007
To the members of Noble Income & Growth VCT plc
This interim management statement has been prepared solely to provide additional
information to the shareholders as a body to meet the relevant requirements of
the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules, and should not be
relied on by any other party or for any other purpose.
This interim management statement considers the future of the fund and, as such,
forward-looking assertions have been made by the Directors in good faith based
on the information available to them up to the time of their approval of this
report. This statement should therefore be treated with due caution due to the
inherent uncertainties of the effect of both economic and business risk factors
in considering forward-looking information.
This interim management statement relates to the period from 1 May 2007 to 31
July 2007 and contains information that covers this period and up to the date of
publication of this interim management statement.
Our investment policy
The Company's objective is to provide Shareholders with an attractive return by
maximising the stream of dividend distributions to Shareholders from both income
and capital gains. It is intended to achieve this objective by investing over
time in a portfolio of VCT qualifying companies traded on AIM and PLUS markets,
together with later stage unquoted companies sand pre-IPO opportunities. The
broad investment strategy enables the Company to invest in a wide range of
opportunities, thus diversifying portfolio risk. The Company continues to
target companies with high quality management teams, scalable business models
and clear market opportunities. In line with a cautious approach to investing,
funds are held on deposit or in low-risk fixed interest investments until
qualifying opportunities are found.
The Company, seeks to manage the balance of risk and return within its
investment policy by:
1. investing in a diversified portfolio
2. actively managing and realising the investments in the portfolio; and
3. aiming to ensure adequate breadth and depth of the investment management
team
Progress during the period
During the period the Net Asset Value decreased by 2.32% from 89.83p per share
at 30 April 2007 to 87.75p per share at 31 July 2007. Over the same period, the
AIM All-share index rose 1.2%.
The decline in NAV over the period is a consequence of a general deterioration
in capital markets, which began in the last week of July and led to falls in the
bulk of holdings across the portfolio. Counter to this, there was an
encouraging rise of 82% in the value of Vicorp plc, following its fundraising
and admission to AIM from PLUS Markets. As a consequence of this, Vicorp was
the largest portfolio holding by value at the end of the month. There were also
strong gains in other core holdings, such as Western & Oriental plc and Northern
Bear plc. The heavy losses suffered by many funds since the tail end of July
have continued into August. It remains to be seen how markets will react to
further newsflow in this area and on the general US economic picture.
At 31 July 2007 the portfolio consisted of a total of 28 companies at different
stages of development. All companies are quoted and all but one, STM Group, are
qualifying companies (although the fund holds both a qualifying and
non-qualifying investment in Brady plc).
During the period under review, profits were taken in holdings in ACM, Mattioli
Woods, Maelor and Tanfield, resulting in a net profit of £34k on a cost of
£181k. A total of £690k was invested during a busy period for AIM
fundraisings. Investments were made in Deltex, a haemodynamic monitoring
business, as part of a placing that raised £1.9m to expand its manufacturing
capability; IDOX plc, the information management business, which successfully
raised £11m on admission to AIM to fund the acquisition of CAPS Solutions; Mount
Engineering plc, a specialist engineering business that reversed onto AIM;
Pressure Technologies plc, the gas cylinder manufacturer, which raised £6m on
its admission to AIM; and Shieldtech plc, a body armour business that raised
£10m on admission to AIM.
VCT qualifying status
The Fund continues to receive full Inland Revenue approval and had 85% of its
ordinary share capital invested in qualifying companies as at 31 July 2007, in
addition to meeting the other tests necessary for maintaining VCT qualifying
status.
120 Old Broad Street By order of the Board
London
EC2N 1AR Theresa Wallis
Director
19 September 2007
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange