Unicorn Asset Management Regulatory News (UAV)

Unicorn AIM VCT plc Interim Management Statement For the period from 1 October 2013 to 31 December 2013. Introduction The Company has prepared this Interim Management Statement (IMS) in accordancewith the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the UK Listing Authority. The IMScovers the three month period ended 31 December 2013, together with relevantinformation up to the date of publication. Investment Objective The objective of the Company is to provide Shareholders with an attractivereturn from a diversified portfolio of investments, predominantly in the sharesof AIM quoted companies, by maximising the stream of dividend distributions toShareholders from the income and capital gains generated by the portfolio. It is also the objective that the Company should continue to qualify as aVenture Capital Trust, so that Shareholders benefit from the taxationadvantages that this brings. To achieve this at least 70% of the Company'stotal assets are to be invested in qualifying investments of which 30% by valuemust be in ordinary shares carrying no preferential rights to dividends orreturn of capital and no rights to redemption. Performance The Company delivered strong absolute and relative performance during theperiod under review. As at 31 December 2013, the unaudited Net Asset Value(NAV) was 145.7 pence per share, compared to an audited NAV of 129.8 pence pershare as at 30 September 2013. In the three months ended 31 December 2013, NAVtherefore increased by 12.2%. By comparison, the FTSE All-Share Index(excluding investment trusts) rose by 5.5%, while the FTSE AIM All-Share Indexgained by 7.5%. NAV and Index performance is calculated on a total returnbasis, after adding back dividends paid. No dividends were paid by the Companyduring the period. The most significant contributor to absolute performance came from Anpario, aleading international producer and distributor of natural feed additives foranimal health, hygiene and nutrition. In the three months to 31 December 2013,Anpario's share price rose by 59%, following the release of strong half yearresults in September 2013. Other noteworthy performances included; Avingtrans (+24%), Crawshaw Group(+123%), HML Holdings (+50%), Pressure Technologies (+35%) and Tangent (+39%). A second profit warning from IDOX (-17%), a supplier of document managementsoftware and services, provided the only meaningful disappointment in theperiod. The profitability of this business continues to suffer from extendeddelays in securing new contracts for its Engineering Information ManagementDivision. Material Transactions There were four new investments and one follow-on purchase made during theperiod:- Eclectic Bar Group - a leading operator of premium bars in the UK. Eclectic'sportfolio comprises venues located in major UK towns and cities, predominantlytargeting a customer base of sophisticated students during week nights andyoung professionals at weekends. A VCT qualifying investment of £426,000 wasmade in Eclectic at the time of its admission to AIM in November 2013. The City Pub Company (East & West) - an owner and operator of high quality,predominantly freehold pubs in cities and major provincial towns in the SouthEast and South West of England. The Company made a VCT qualifying investment of£1m in The City Pub Company (East & West), which is currently an unquotedbusiness. Interactive Investor - a privately owned and managed business which started in1995 and has developed an online investment platform providing competitivelypriced execution-only products and services, enabling users to trade securitiesand invest directly from its website iii.co.uk. The investment of £1.75m wasmade through a purchase of shares from an existing holder. This investment istherefore non-qualifying for VCT purposes. The Company's Chairman, Peter Dicks,is also Chairman of Interactive Investor but took no part in the decision toinvest. WYG - a Leeds based global project management and technical consultancyoperating in a number of sectors. A total of £1.1m was invested in WYG througha secondary market purchase of AIM listed shares. This investment is alsotherefore non-qualifying for VCT purposes. Sanderson Group - a supplier of software solutions to multi-channel retail andmanufacturing businesses. A small follow-on investment of £125,000 was made inSanderson Group; an existing holding within the portfolio. This investment waspart of a £3.5m placing of new shares designed to help fund the acquisition of`One iota'; a competitor focused on the provision of cloud-based multi-channelretail solutions. A holding in Chime Communications was realised in full during the period. In order to manage stock specific risk effectively and to maintain appropriatecash balances, a number of partial disposals were also made. The total cost ofpurchases in the period amounted to £4.39m, while realisations generated cashproceeds of £3.71m. Full and partial disposals resulted in a realised gain forthe period of £437,000, and a total realised gain of £2m over book cost. Top 10 Equity Holdings as at 31 December 2013 Stock % of portfolio Abcam 10.9% Anpario 8.6% Unicorn UK Smaller Companies Fund 4.9% Mattioli Woods 4.6% Tracsis 4.6% Mears Group 4.1% Avingtrans 3.4% Cohort 3.4% Unicorn Mastertrust Fund 3.0% Pressure Technologies 2.8% Total 50.3% Share Buy-Backs/Issue of Equity During the period from 1 October 2013 to 31 December 2013, the Company boughtback 770,000 of its own ordinary shares at an average price of 113.6 pence pershare. The average discount to the net asset value per share at which theshares were bought back during the period was 16.7%. Two allotments were made in the period under review. These allotments relate tothe £20m Offer for Subscription, which was launched on 20 September 2013. Atotal of 3,245,153 new Ordinary Shares were issued at an average price of 146.0pence per share. As a result of these transactions, the total number of shares in issue at theperiod end was 59,242,844. After the period end, on 13 January 2014, the Company bought back a further179,650 of its own Ordinary Shares at an average price of 122.5 pence pershare. Following the buy-back, the total number of shares in issue was59,063,194. Material Events There were no other material events during the period from 1 October 2013 to 31December 2013.