
33
Annual Report & Financial Statements 2021
Mobeus Income & Growth 4 VCT plc
Dividends
The Board continues to be committed to
providing an attractive dividend stream to
Shareholders and is pleased to have
announced a second interim dividend of
4.00 pence per share, which was paid on
7 January 2022 to Shareholders on the
r
egister on 10 December 2021.
This second interim dividend, together with
a first interim dividend of 5.00 pence per
share paid on 6 August 2021 to
Shareholders on the register on 9 July 2021,
brings dividends paid and proposed in
respect of the financial year ended
31December 2021 to 9.00 pence per share.
To date, cumulative dividends paid since
inception total 143.20 pence per share.
The Company has now met or exceeded the
Board’s dividend target of paying at least
4.00 pence per share in respect of each
financial year over the last twelve years.
As Shareholders have been advised
previously, the gradual move of the portfolio
to younger growth capital investments as
well as the realisations of older, more mature
companies that have provided a good
income yield, are likely to make dividends
harder to achieve from income and capital
returns alone in any given year. The Board
aims to distribute realised profits (such as
income and gains from realisations) achieved
in a year as dividends but notes that a
reduction in income received by the
Company was seen during the year. The
Board, therefore, continues to monitor the
sustainability of the annual dividend target.
Shareholders should also note that there
may continue to be circumstances where the
Company is required to pay dividends in
order to maintain its regulatory status as a
VCT, for example, to stay above the minimum
percentage of assets required to be held in
qualifying investments. Such dividends paid
in excess of net income and capital gains
achieved will cause the Company’s NAV per
share to reduce by a corresponding amount.
Dividend Investment Scheme
The Company’s Dividend Investment
Scheme (“DIS”) provides Shareholders with
the opportunity to reinvest their cash
dividends into new shares in the Company
at the latest published NAV per share. New
VCT shares attract the same tax reliefs as
shares purchased through an Oer for
Subscription. As part of the 5.00 pence per
share dividend paid on 6 August 2021,
695,052 Ordinary shares were allotted to
participants of the DIS at a price of 92.24
pence per share. For the further 4.00 pence
per share dividend declared for the year
and paid after the year-end on 7 January
2022, 508,732 Ordinary shares were
allotted at a price of 99.57 pence per share
to DIS participants.
Shareholders wishing to take advantage
of the scheme for any future dividends
can join the DIS by completing a mandate
form available on the Company’s website,
under the ‘Dividends’ heading, at:
www.mig4vct.co.uk., or alternatively,
Shareholders can opt-out by contacting
Link Group, using their details provided
under Corporate Information on page 86.
Investment portfolio
The portfolio movements across the year
were as follows:
2021
£
2020
£
Opening portfolio value 41.68 38.54
New and further investments 6.23 4.80
Disposal proceeds (12.23) (14.97)
Net realised gains 4.19 4.44
Valuation movements 25.71 8.87
Portfolio value at
31 December 65.58 41.68
During the year, the Company invested a
total of £6.23 million into four new and nine
existing portfolio companies (2020: £4.80
million; four new, four existing).
New investments totalling £2.53 million
were made into Vivacity Labs (an artificial
intelligence and Urban Trac Control
(“UTC”) system), Caledonian Leisure (a
provider of UK experience and leisure
breaks), Legatics (a SaaS LegalTech
software business) and Vet’s Klinic (a
veterinary clinic roll out).
Additional funding of £3.70 million was
provided across nine existing portfolio
companies, including Parsley Box (an
ambient meals provider), Bleach London
(hair colourants brand), Arkk Consulting (a
financial reporting service provider), Bella &
Duke (a frozen raw dog food provider),
Tapas Revolution (a Spanish restaurant
chain), MyTutor (an online tutoring
marketplace), Andersen EV (a producer of
premium EV chargers), ActiveNav (a
provider of enterprise-level file analysis
software) and Preservica (a proprietary
digital archiving software provider).
The Company generated £6.02 million in
proceeds from the realisation of its
investments in Proactive Group, Vian
Marketing Limited (trading as Red Paddle)
and Omega Diagnostics during the year. In
addition to £3.21 million of proceeds
received from the partial realisations of
Virgin Wines and Parsley Box (upon the
admission of their shares to AIM as
mentioned previously), the partial
realisations of MPB Group and MyTutor,
together with loan repayments and other
capital receipts of £3.00 million, the
Company generated total proceeds of
£12.23 million in the year to 31 December
2021.
The portfolio has performed very strongly
over the Company’s financial year. The
overall value increased by £29.90 million
(2020: £13.31 million), or 71.8% (2020: 34.5%)
on a like-for-like basis, compared to the
start of the year. This increase comprised a
net unrealised uplift in portfolio valuations
of £25.71 million and £4.19 million in net
realised gains over the year. The portfolio
was valued at £65.58 million at the year-end
(2020: £41.68 million).
Within net realised gains, the principal
contributors were the full realised gains of
Proactive Group and Red Paddle (total of
£2.48 million). Total proceeds received over
the life of investments in Proactive Group
(£1.94 million) and Red Paddle (£4.84 million)
generated multiples of cost of 2.6x (IRR:
33.0%) and 5.4x (33.2%) respectively
(including £0.40 million received in deferred
proceeds from Red Paddle after the
year-end. Further realised gains were also
generated from the partial realisations of
Parsley Box (£0.54 million), MPB Group
(£0.41 million) and MyTutor (£0.38 million).
The portfolio’s valuation at the year-end
reflects the continued beneficial impact of
changes in UK consumer and business
behaviour brought on by the pandemic and
lockdown restrictions, particularly for those
businesses operating direct-to-consumer
models. This also underscores the success
of portfolio companies in adapting to a
rapidly changing environment, becoming
more ecient and diversifying their product
oering in order to take advantage of
opportunities that have arisen.
Since the year-end, in February 2022, the
Company made a new investment into
Proximity Insight, a retail software provider.
This is the first investment made since the
acquisition of the Mobeus VCT investment
advisory business by Gresham House and
the Company’s investment was made
alongside the other VCTs advised and
managed by Gresham House (the three
other Mobeus VCTs and the two
Baronsmead VCTs). In accordance, with the
agreed allocation policy, the Company
contributed £0.61 million towards a total
Gresham House supported investment of
£5.00 million.
The flotation of both Virgin Wines and
Parsley Box on the AIM market in March
2021 resulted in significant uplifts in
valuation, as well as generating an element
of realised returns. As part of the Virgin
Wines transaction, the Company received
repayment of its remaining loan stock,
leaving Virgin Wines ungeared and, as part
of the IPO of Parsley Box, the Company
realised part of its equity holding, securing
a 4.0x return on the cost of the shares sold.
As was expected, these quoted stocks are
subject to stock market movements and
have brought an additional level of
volatility to a portion of the portfolio. In the
second half of the year, Parsley Box in
particular saw a subsequent value decline
in the face of changing market sentiment
Chairman’s Statement