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SECTOR SPLIT BY STRUCTURE
The industry sectors can be looked at
in further detail by analysing the split
between single company investments
and managed funds/portfolios.
It is interesting to see that the Other
(including Transport, Sport and
Construction) and Education sectors are all
dominated by single company investments.
It seems that there are no specialist
operators in these sectors as yet, which
suggests that there isn’t the kind of deal
flow required to merit specialist funds.
The larger sectors generally have a good
mix of both single company and fund
based investments. Funds account for
the highest proportion of investments
within General Enterprise accounting for
93% of the sector, followed by Energy with
84% of the sector and Technology with
75%. Media has a relatively even split with
55% single companies and 45% funds/
portfolios. There are a number of well-
established operators in each of these
sectors with many having launched more
than one investment, which suggests
both a healthy amount of deal flow and
investor demand – hopefully an indicator of
successful investments that have benefited
both investors and the companies.
It is also very interesting to see how the
different sectors within the EIS market
have developed over time. The chart on
the right looks at the proportion of the
market each sector accounted for over the
last 16 years. Over time there has been a
reduction in the dominance of sectors such
as Food and Drink and Education, and a
large amount of growth in Energy, which
since 2008 has grown to become the largest
sector. Technology was a dominant sector
in 1999 leading up to the tech bubble, lost
market share between 2002 and 2005
and has since seen strong growth to once
again become one of the largest sectors.
Over the last half dozen years, Food and
Drink and General Enterprise have seen
their market share drop while Technology,
Media and Energy have all risen.
KEY POINTS
There are 7 main sectors in the EIS market with Energy, Technology and General
Enterprise accounting for 64% of the market
The larger, more established sectors tend to be weighted towards fund/portfolio based
opportunities as opposed to the smaller niche sectors which focus on single company
offerings
The EIS market has changed vastly over time with Energy now the largest sector with
28% of the market
67%
33%
SPLIT OF EIS SECTORS BY INVESTMENT STRUCTURE
HISTORIC MARKET SHARE BY SECTOR
(1998 - 2014)
Single Company*
Fund/Portfolio**
(1998 - 2014)
*the darker shade represents single company **the lighter shade represents fund/portfolio
