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SECTOR ANALYSIS
SPECIALIST SECTOR GROWTH BY SUB-SECTOR BY No. OF VCTs
LIMITED LIFE SPECIALISTS
MARKET BY SECTOR
(2015)
The Generalist sector represents the
majority of VCTs (60%). Generalists invest
in a variety of companies across different
sectors in order to achieve greater levels of
diversification.
Specialist VCTs represent 32% of the market.
As the name suggests, these VCTs specialise
investing in companies operating in different
sectors of the economy. The Specialist sector
consists broadly of five sub-sectors. The two
most popular are Environmental (43%) and
Media (41%), followed by Technology at 9%,
Infrastructure (5%) and the Healthcare sector
(2%). Although the environmental sector
holds the largest market share, we expect
that to decrease over the coming years now
that renewable subsidies no longer qualify.
AIM VCTs represent the smallest sector of the
market. Although the investment universe is
well- known, it is limited with just over 1,100
companies listed, and not all of those will be
VCT qualifying.
Limited Life VCTs can be either generalist
OR specialist, but we have not seen any
examples of Limited Life VCTs investing on
AIM.
Generalist were the only game in town when
VCTs were launched. However, their share
of the market has steadily decreased to
60% today. The Specialist sector has proven
popular over the past 5 years with a current
market share of 31%, driven by the market for
renewables as discussed previously.
The smallest sector over the past five years
has consistently been the AIM sector. The
number of AIM VCTs has been declining from
a high of 20% in 2007. We can see that the
financial crisis of 2008 had a big negative
impact on this sector.
Environmental and Media’s cumulative
growth has been the most noteworthy
among the five sub-sectors of Specialist VCTs.
They have both witnessed consistent and
substantial growth since 2007.
No. OF INVESTEE COMPANIES PER VCT
(2015)
No. OF INVESTEE COMPANIES PER VCT
MIN LOWER Q.
AVERAGE UPPER Q.
MAX
GENERALIST
7
10
25
39
84
AIM
20
39
56
69
109
ENVIRONMENTAL
2
11
8
14
32
MEDIA
3
9
5
9
26
TECHNOLOGY
9
10.5
15
20
21
LIMITED LIFE
3
10
16
22
32
AIM
Generalist
Generalist
AIM Environmental
Healthcare Infrastructure Media Technology
Environment
Healthcare
Infrastructure
Technology
Media
Infrastructure
Environmental
Technology
Healthcare
Media, Leisure
& Events
60%
13%
1%
1%
13%
3%
9%
LIMITED LIFE SECTORS
Generalist
Specialist
58%
42%
3%
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
1996
1999
2002
2005
2008
2011
2014
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
2015
100
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
86%
14%
11%
11%
8%
6%
6%
6%
6%
6%
5%
4%
4%
3%
3%
3%
8%
8%
7%
8%
7%
4%
2%
2%
8%
12%
8%
11%
11%
11%
17%
18%
18%
13%
11%
10%
9%
9%
9%
13%
12%
11%
10%
10%
7%
5%
13%
13%
14%
13%
11%
7%
5%
4% 3%
3% 3%
16%
19%
19%
78%
85%
82%
83%
80%
80%
78%
74%
69%
67%
67%
67%
67%
64%
62%
61%
61%
60%
66%
42%
55%
3%