Uncertainty around Brexit has hit UK markets and raised questions about the UK’s economic prospects, but what effect is it having on the UK’s smaller unquoted companies? Despite a tough year, the average VCT returned 2.7% in 2018 and is up 42% and 163% over five and ten years. Where are VCT managers finding opportunities today and what are their views ahead of Brexit?

At a media roundtable held today by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), John Glencross, CEO of Calculus Capital which manages the Calculus VCT, Ian McLennan, manager of the Triple Point VCTs, and Rodney Appiah, director of Foresight which manages the Foresight VCTs, discussed their recent investment activity, the potential effect of Brexit on smaller companies and their overall outlook for the sector.

£30m invested; 5 exits; £600m of deals. What’s coming to UK small business in 2019?

For YFM 2018 was a year that confounded predictions.  We had predicted a year where Brexit and general uncertainty over slowing global growth might cloud events and perhaps dampen investment appetites.

Flavia Richardson, portfolio Manager for the London Co-Investment Fund , considers the 5 elements which classify an outperforming company.

The latest HMRC ISA Bulletin confirmed that ISA subscriptions cannot be held with eMoney providers. Goji, the specialist direct lending investment manager and platform, comments on how this could impact the investment industry and the P2P sector. 

By Caspar Bowes, Bowes Wine

We’ve been in the throes of the latest burgundy offering of late, not only visiting the region but shuttling back-and-forth to Capital City for a silly number of tastings relating to this latest, 2017 vintage.

Investors are increasingly being drawn to cash and cash equivalents (like money market funds and very liquid debt) for capital preservation amid greater market uncertainty.

Hundreds of books and articles have been written on leadership – most are written by academics based on surveys and by people, who neither held penultimate leadership roles in sizeable global organisations nor directly worked with any truly great leaders. So, it isn’t surprising that leadership is a much talked about topic, yet misunderstood by most. In my search for unearthing the real traits of great leaders of our generation, I caught up with Sukhendu, whose development as a leader is similar to an apprentice chef learning the amazing culinary skills in the hot kitchens from some of the world’s iconic chefs. Sukhendu saw firsthand how Mother Theresa started her journey in Calcutta as an immigrant to become a global icon as well as his experience of working with people who led their companies from the start-up to world beating organisations, including Larry Ellison and Geoff Squire of Oracle, Tom Siebel of Siebel Systems, Steve Garnett and Marc Benioff of Salesforce, John Reed of Citicorp and Sandy Weill of Travelers Group. Here is what I discovered.

Following the heavy Government defeat on the Brexit withdrawal motion, PIMFA, the trade association for the personal investment management and financial advice sector, re-emphasises the requirement for legislators and Government executives to keep uppermost the interests of individuals and families as they develop alternative proposals for parliamentarians to consider in the days ahead.  The private clients of PIMFA member firms, who come from all parts of society and not just the wealthy sector, have around £1.5 trillion of personal investment and savings, including pensions, under advice or management by these firms and preservation of the value of their personal assets, so they benefit rather than suffer from decisions about the UK’s relationship with its EU partners, is a paramount concern.

Alex Sleigh, Investment Director at Newable shares his thoughts on trends from last year, what to expect for 2019 and how the upcoming year will impact businesses at the heart of the economy.

By Robert Crowter-Jones, Head of Private Capital at Saranac Partners

Families now tend to allocate 10-30% of their total assets into private capital investments, with debt/equity exposure via funds and direct investments growing year-on-year

Simon Murdoch from Episode1 Ventures reflects on what 2019 might bring....

Tom Elliott, deVere Group’s International Investment Strategist, comments on what we can expect in 2019, after a turbulent start to the year on global financial markets.