(Alliance News) - New Century AIM VCT PLC on Friday reported a sharp decrease in net asset value in a "difficult year".
At February 28, the venture capital trust's NAV per share stood at 68.81 pence compared to 88.22p at February 29 last year, a 22% decrease.
The trust proposed a dividend of 3.50p, 2.9% higher than the 3.40p distributed the year before.
New Century AIM VCT's benchmark, the AIM All Share index lost 13% over the same period. The trust's total return per share was negative 16.01p in the year ended February, compared to a gain of 7.14p in financial 2018.
"The markets certainly proved to be turbulent from September 2018 through to the end of the year where the All-Share AIM index fell by 24% from its high in September to its low in December. Although political events such as the trade war tensions between the USA and China, and the ongoing negotiations of Brexit were prevalent before this time, the market became more unsettled from the summer and we witnessed widespread declines in share prices irrespective of the size of the company," said Chair Geoffrey Gamble.
He added: "We continue to monitor and meet our investments, and we are generally happy that the companies continue to trade well, although this has not necessarily been reflected in their current share price."
At the end of May, the trust's NAV per share stood at 71.61p.
Shares in New Century AIM VCT were untraded in London on Friday but last closed at 71.0p each.
The trust's investment manager concluded: "Although the performance in the period has been disappointing, we remain cautiously optimistic in the current year even though there will probably be more volatility in the months ahead due to political events at home and abroad. We remain in touch with our investments and we are happy that the fund has a well diversified portfolio of businesses from many different industry sectors to help spread the risk."
