New Cent. Aim Vct 2 Strategy/Company/Operations Update

 
TIDMNCA2 
 
 

NEW CENTURY AIM VCT 2 PLC

4th Floor, 50 Mark Lane, London EC3R 7QR

Phone: [phone]

Registered in England under Company No. 5352611

Registered Office: as above

17 October 2016

Dear Shareholder

Your fund is approaching its tenth anniversary and your board feels that it is now appropriate to offer you the opportunity to decide your funds future direction.

Your fund has developed a diverse portfolio of Aim stocks and is now performing reasonably well, in fact over the last 3 year period it is the second highest performing fund out of 11 funds in the Aim VCT sector.

We have had some success in reducing the discount the shares trade at, compared to the Net Asset Value (NAV), by offering an annual 10% buyback facility.

These buybacks arranged at just a 5% discount to NAV have helped those shareholders wanting to realise some of their investment and also helped the share price to rise to more fairly reflect the underlying value of the assets in the fund. Nevertheless the board realises that there might be shareholders who wish to fully realise their investment and so we feel that now is the time to outline the different options that we believe are available.

OPTIONS

1. To proceed with an orderly winding up of the fund and to return any monies realised to the shareholders.

This process would take some time so as to ensure as far as possible that fair values were achieved on disposal of the portfolio.

In addition the process could not be started until at least April 2017 at which time the last shares issued in the fund will have existed for over 5 years, which is the minimum period that the shares can be held to qualify for Income Tax Relief.

Any disposal of its investments that caused the percentage of the fund invested in Qualifying Assets to fall below 70% would result in the fund losing its VCT status and consequently the Income Tax Relief mentioned above.

2. To continue with buybacks.

This option does return some of the shareholders' investments to them but in a limited amount.

This is a compromise option but your board believes it does not satisfy those shareholders who wish to fully realise their investment, while it also reduces the cash available in the fund to pay dividends.

3. To continue with the fund in its present form but to focus on producing a bigger income stream for shareholders.

This is the option favoured by your board. We consider that a progressive dividend policy aiming to achieve a yield of circa 5%, tax free, is an attractive proposition, particularly in the present low interest rate environment.

The Board of Directors and certain other individuals who in total control 35.63% of the company's issued shares have undertaken to vote for option 3.

With this letter you will find a prepaid card/envelope with the voting options clearly shown.

We will write to the shareholders again after this exercise to inform you of the outcome of the voting and let you know the upcoming timetable of events.

Geoffrey Gamble

Chairman

New Century AIM VCT 2 Plc

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161018006362/en/

 
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 18, 2016 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)