Octopus AIM VCT PLC : Interim Management Statement

Octopus AIM VCT plc
Interim Management Statement

27 December 2012

In accordance with Rule 4.3 of the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency rules, Octopus AIM VCT plc ("Company" or "Fund") presents an Interim Management Statement for the period 1 September 2012 to 17 December 2012. The statement also includes relevant financial information between the end of the period and the date of this statement.

Financial Summary

	17 December 2012	31 August 2012
Net assets (£000)	42,062	41,391
Net asset value per share ("NAV")	88.9p	86.9p
Dividends announced or paid in the period	2.5p	2.5p

Investment Performance
It was encouraging to see the Net Asset Value edging upwards in the period, mostly in response to good newsflow and profit upgrades in the portfolio. There are also early signs that investors are becoming more positive towards the smaller companies sector as fears about lack of international growth continue to dominate other areas of the market. Adding back the dividend, over the period the NAV rose by 5.2%, ahead of the AIM Index which was up by 1.4% but trailed the Smaller Companies Index Ex Investment Trusts which rose by 7.2%. The performance of the latter was led by some of its bigger and more liquid constituents. Performance in the portfolio was helped by good figures from Vertu Motors, Idox and Advanced Computer Software, a good trading update from Escher and an acquisition and fundraising from Brooks MacDonald.

Investment Activity
In the period, the VCT invested £2m in four new qualifying holdings.  One of these was a new issue, Fusionex, a profitable company in the software sector and the other three were further funding rounds into existing AIM companies, Tangent, Futura Medical and DP Poland. Tangent, a communications and on-line printing business is already profitable and Futura Medical, a medical device company and DP Poland, which operates the Dominos Pizza franchise in Poland, are earlier stage. These purchases were matched by profit taking from the portfolio where holdings in Brooks, Idox, Mears and Brady were trimmed after strong performance and Hargreaves and Zetar were disposed of in their entirety, the latter as the result of a bid. The holding in Vitesse Media was sold as part of the ongoing tidying of the tail of small holdings which resulted from the merger with Phoenix.  The disposals resulted in a profit of £0.78m for the fund.

Investment Portfolio - Ten Largest Holdings by Value as at 17 December 2012

Company	Sector	Carrying value £'000	% of net assets
Idox plc	Software & Computer Services	2,485	5.9
Advanced Computer Software Group plc	Software & Computer Services	2,043	4.9
Brooks MacDonald Group plc	Speciality & Other Finance	1,944	4.6
Breedon Aggregates Limited	Construction & Building	1,634	3.9
EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc	Health	1,551	3.7
Escher Group Holdings plc	Software & Computer Services	1,473	3.5
Staffline Recruitment Group plc	Support Services	1,131	2.7
MyCelx Technologies Corporation	Oil Services	1,028	2.4
Vertu Motors plc	General Retailers	1,013	2.4
Enteq Upstream plc	Oil Services	980	2.3

Dividends
The Company announced an interim dividend of 2.5p. It was paid on 30 November 2012 to shareholders on the register on 2 November 2012.

Buybacks
During the period 1 September 2012 to 17 December 2012, the Company purchased 287,251 ordinary shares at a weighted average price of 78.3p per share.

Enhanced Buyback
Enhanced Buyback opportunities are available now to investors in Octopus AIM VCT plc. If you have held your VCT shares for more than five years you can ask us to sell the shares and reinvest the proceeds back into the VCT to secure another round of 30% income tax relief.

Please note the closing date for applications to participate in the Enhanced Buyback Facility has been extended from noon on 28 December 2012 to noon on 31 January 2013 in order to give shareholders more time to respond. For more information, please call 0800 294 6828.

Total Voting Rights
The Company's capital as at 17 December 2012 consisted of 47,327,992 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 1p each, with voting rights. The Company does not hold any ordinary shares in Treasury. Therefore, the total number of voting rights in the Company as at 17 December 2012 was 47,327,992. 

Material events and transactions
The Board is not aware of any other significant event or transaction which has occurred between 1 September 2012 and the date of publication of this statement which would have a material impact on the financial position of the Company.

For further information please contact:
Andrew Buchanan and Kate Tidbury - Fund Managers
Octopus Investments Limited - 0800 316 2347
ENDS

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Source: Octopus AIM VCT PLC via Thomson Reuters ONE

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