Interim Management Statement
May 15 2008 - 7:35AM
UK Regulatory
Unicorn AIM VCT II plc
Interim Management Statement
For the period from 1 January 2008 to 30 April 2008
Introduction
The Company has prepared this Interim Management Statement (IMS) in accordance
with the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the UK Listing Authority. The IMS
covers the four month period ended 30 April 2008, together with relevant
information up to the date of publication.
Investment Objective
The objective of the Company is to provide Shareholders with an attractive
return from a diversified portfolio of investments, predominantly in the shares
of AIM quoted companies, by maximising the stream of dividend distributions to
Shareholders from the income and capital gains generated by the portfolio.
It is also the objective that the Company should continue to qualify as a
Venture Capital Trust, so that Shareholders benefit from the taxation
advantages that this brings. To achieve this at least 70% of the Company's
total assets are to be invested in qualifying investments of which 30% by value
must be in ordinary shares carrying no preferential rights to dividends or
return of capital and no rights to redemption.
Performance
The period under review has been a volatile one for UK equity markets as the
crisis in the banking sector worsened and investors became increasingly nervous
about a deteriorating economic outlook. Smaller companies, as is often the
case, were hardest hit due to their inherent lack of liquidity. As a result,
the share prices of smaller quoted companies have remained under considerable
pressure. Since the start of January 2008, the FTSE AIM AllShare Index has
fallen by 6.8%.
Despite this unhelpful backdrop, the Company continued to make satisfactory
progress. The performance of both the Ordinary and the C Share Fund was notably
enhanced by the successful reversal of Crawshaw Group, a chain of retail
butchers, into an AIM listed cash shell, which produced an uplift on investment
cost of more than 90%.
In the four months to the end of April 2008, the Ordinary Share Fund produced a
total return of -0.2%, based on a net asset value at 30 April 2008 of 105.2p
per share (including negative current year income) plus total cumulative
dividends paid at the end of the period of 1p per share A dividend of 5 pence
per share was declared during the period under review.
In the same period, the C Share Fund delivered a total return of 1.8%, based on
a net asset value at 30 April 2008 of 90.0p per share (excluding current year
income) plus total cumulative dividends paid at the end of the period of 1p per
share. A dividend of 1 pence per share was declared during the period.
Each respective dividend above was paid on 6 May 2008 to Shareholders on the
register on 11 April 2008.
Material Transactions
During the period under review, the Ordinary Share Fund made no new qualifying
investments and raised just over �500,000 from a disposal of units in the
Unicorn UK Income Fund.
The C Share Fund made two new qualifying investments in IS Pharma, a specialist
hospital medicines group and Greatfleet, a small recruitment business focused
on the legal, finance and IT sectors. No disposals were made during the period.
Share Capital
During the period under review the Company allotted and issued 260,863 new
Ordinary Shares at a price of 98p per share and 79,246 new C Shares at a price
of 89 pence per share under the top-up Offers launched on 25 February 2008. On
6 May 2008 the Company allotted and issued a further 15,765 new Ordinary Shares
at a price of 98p per share under the top-up Offer.
No Ordinary Shares or C Shares were bought back during the period.
Top 10 Equity Holdings at 30 April 2008
Ordinary Share Fund Percentage of Fund
Unicorn Mastertrust Fund 7.9%
Unicorn UK Smaller Companies Fund 6.3%
Crawshaw Group 5.7%
Concateno 5.5%
Cohort 4.9%
Mattioli Woods 4.4%
Abcam 4.4%
Pressure Technologies 4.0%
Unicorn UK Income Fund 3.4%
Vindon Healthcare 2.9%
C Share Fund Percentage of Fund
Unicorn Free Spirit Fund 12.6%
Unicorn UK Smaller Companies Fund 11.7%
Unicorn UK Income Fund 11.1%
Unicorn Mastertrust Fund 11.4%
Cohort 4.0%
Concateno 4.0%
Hasgrove 2.9%
Crawshaw Group 2.8%
Animalcare Group 2.4%
Snacktime 2.2%
Material Events
Other than described above, there were no material events during the period
from 1 January 2008 to 30 April 2008.
END
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