The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relative to wealth advisors and their clients.

Guinness Ventures
Guinness Ventures, the growth company investment arm of Guinness Global Investors, has launched its first VCT – Guinness Venture Capital Trust.

The firm said it has raised in excess of the minimum target fundraise and has made the first issue of shares in the new trust, Guinness VCT. The shares will be admitted to the London Stock Exchange, with the offering remaining open for subscriptions. 

The VCT will provide investors with a diversified portfolio of investments into some of the UK's growth companies, the firm said in a statement. In particular, the manager will invest in businesses with three key characteristics: strong management teams; exceptional growth prospects and strong competitive positions with unique attributes which make them difficult to replicate or substitute.

The Guinness VCT may co-invest with Guinness EIS services, the firm continued. Currently, the Guinness EIS service is an active investor in over 40 private growth companies across 14 sectors. Guinness Ventures said it also has a track record of investing in AIM-listed companies and may invest up to 20 per cent of the portfolio in AIM-listed companies. 

Guinness's diversified approach to investing provides exposure to growth companies across a range of sectors including technology, education, ecommerce, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, leisure, and food and drink, the firm said. The focus is on companies that already have a proven product, service or technology, but are looking for funds to help them gain further traction in their respective markets. The application deadline for the 2022/2023 tax year is 15:00 on 3 April 2023. 

Shane Gallwey, head of Ventures at Guinness Global Investors (pictured) said: “We are very pleased to have successfully launched our new Venture Capital Trust. A totally new VCT is extremely rare, with very few launched over the last decade and this new vehicle underlines the strength of our expertise in this area.” 

“With greater clarity from the government over the future of VCTs, we believe this is an exciting time for retail investors to take advantage of the many benefits of a professionally managed, diversified portfolio,” he added.