I attended the Crown Place VCT (CRWN) Annual General Meeting today via the Hopin platform. This worked well with no technical hitches.
I have held the shares in this company for a very long time. It was one of those VCTs with a difficult history originally when it was formed from three Murray VCTs. After Albion took over management it has had a good track record. Total return in the last 5 years has been 14.0%, 14.6%, 11.2%, -0.6% and 15.9% last year.
Emil Gigov, representing the manager, gave a useful presentation. Like some other VCTs I hold, it has been focussing on late on software, fintech and digital health companies which now comprise 77% of the portfolio (excluding cash) and has been selling off its asset-based investments such as care homes. It is holding a large amount of cash in the portfolio (35% of assets) and this raised a question from the audience. Why so much cash? Answer was primarily because they need to keep that to exploit future opportunities, particularly follow-on investments to existing holdings.
I asked a question which I submitted in writing during the meeting which was: “What do you think of the Chancellors announcement that all listed companies will have to state how they expect to achieve net zero, enforced by regulation?”. But I did not get an answer.
All resolutions were passed with over 90% of support. In summary there seemed to be no contentious issues at this VCT and charges are reasonable (although raised to 2.6% of assets last year due to a big performance fee).
Note that an interesting aspect on the question I posed was revealed in a survey that the AIC has published of private investors. This is what it said: “When asked what was important to them in choosing an investment, respondents ranked ESG as the least important of five factors. Among all respondents, the most important consideration was an investment’s performance record, followed by fees and charges, the fund manager’s reputation, and the asset management company’s reputation.
But one female respondent aged 59 said: ‘In my personal life I do give consideration to these things, I drive an electric car, I have a plant-based diet, I definitely have quite strong feelings about that – but hand on heart when it has come to my investments, the first thing I would look at is returns.’
ESG is more important to women than men, and more important to investors under 45 than those over 45”.
The AIC don’t give the actual numbers who responded so as investors tend to be male and over 45 perhaps this affected the outcome. Such investors are less likely to adopt extreme life styles I suggest.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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