ShareSoc Gives Voting Recommendations for Rensburg AIM VCT Annual General Meeting

PRESS RELEASE 67 4/8/2015

ShareSoc has been running a campaign on Rensburg AIM VCT since 2011. Our initial concerns were the investment performance and policy, but more recently the Directors proposed to wind-up the company. ShareSoc opposed that on the grounds that many investors, some of whom originally would have claimed capital gains roll-over relief, would be disadvantaged by such a move. Although the position of investors is affected by their personal circumstances and tax position, it seemed possible to us to meet the needs of both those investors who wished to exit and those who wished to remain invested.

The Directors then arranged a proposed deal for a merger with Unicorn AIM VCT via a scheme of arrangement, linked to a tender offer for those investors who wished to exit. They issued an announcement about this on the 17th July.

An AGM was scheduled for the 22nd July but this was postponed the day before, no doubt inconveniencing some investors. This is a very unusual thing for a public company to do and the grounds for doing so within the Articles of the company do not appear to support such a move in our view when none of the resolutions on the Meeting agenda were affected by the new proposals.

As regards the resolutions on the new Agenda, we recommend shareholders vote in favour of Resolution 1 which enables the Directors to proceed to firm up the proposed Unicorn deal. However we recommend voting against Resolutions 3, 4 and 5 which are those to reappoint the three current directors. 

In summary, we welcome the change of direction by the Directors of this company, and it is surely a good example of how bringing shareholder pressure to bear can result in some reconsideration of important issues, but our faith in the judgement of the current directors has long ago been lost. 

More details of past events at Rensburg AIM VCT and our campaign on it can be found on this web page: www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/rensburg-aim-vct/

For further information, please contact:

Roger Lawson
Deputy Chairman, ShareSoc
Telephone: 020-8467-2686  

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