Unicorn AIM VCT seeks to raise £10m after difficult year for sector

The offer has a £5m over-allotment facility and a maximum of 15 million ordinary shares of 1p each can be issued.

It opens for applications at 9am on 6 February and closes on 30 March, or earlier if fully subscribed, or subject to the board’s discretion.

The VCT’s original fundraising was in November 2001 and it had assets of over £220m at the end of 2022.  

Unicorn struggled last year, with its AUM declining as a result of valuation reductions.

During its financial year, which ended 30 September 2022, the VCT’s total loss per share for the financial year was 27.5%, which the chair Tim Woodcock acknowledged was a “disappointing outcome” in the prospectus.

However, he noted it was “less severe” than that of the FTSE AIM All-Share index, which fell 34.3% in the same period.

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“Despite recent economic headwinds, the operational performance of many of our AIM-listed companies has been reassuringly resilient,” said Woodcock.

“A large proportion of our investee companies are well established, profitable and cash generative businesses, which sell highly specialised products and services for which there is typically continuing, strong demand.

“While the immediate outlook for less mature companies remains challenging, it is reasonable to anticipate positive returns from these businesses once market conditions become more favourable.”  

In the three months to 31 December the company returned 0.1% while the index returned 3.6%.

Woodcock said the outperformance of the index was in part due to the recovery of the financial services sector which the portfolio has low exposure to.

He added, the share price of Maxcyte, a life sciences business, that is the company’s third top holding, making up 10% of the portfolio was “under pressure” during the period.

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Woodcock said Unicorn, the investment manager, is “confident that the modest relative underperformance recorded during the first quarter can be reversed during the remainder of the company’s current financial year”.

Chris Hutchinson, fund manager at Unicorn, commented: “our approach to backing new companies remains highly selective and we remain confident that we will continue to find exciting investment opportunities that, over time, are capable of delivering this important combination of tax-free dividend income and capital growth”.