• Increasing numbers of VCTs have completed mergers/acquisitions of other VCTs, or have announced plans to merge. In these circumstances we believe it necessary to continue to monitor the performance of VCTs and their managers, allowing and adjusting for such corporate actions in order to ensure that the historical performance recorded is representative, despite the 'original' VCT possibly no longer being in existence. We have therefore introduced new categories (listed at the bottom of the web-page) including 'Crystallised' and 'Adjusted', which account for VCTs and share classes that generally no longer exist.



• The 'Crystallised' section of the tables at the very bottom of the page primarily includes all past VCTs and share classes that now no longer exist. It details their performance from initial launch to the date they either wound-up or merged with another trust.



• The 'Adjusted' section of the tables tracks the ongoing performance of VCTs and share classes that no longer exist, by adjusting the returns of the VCT it merged into or was acquired by, according to the published apportionment factor (i.e. the ratio of shares exchanged). In this manner for example, if VCT 'A' merged into VCT 'B' on the basis of one share received in exchange for every three existing shares, then an NAV of 75p for VCT 'B' would result in an adjusted NAV of 25p for VCT 'A'. The same applies to dividends following the date of the merger in order to calculate an adjusted total return and total internal rate of return (IRR). Such adjustments are also made for any consolidation in the share capital of VCTs since original launch.



• Additionally, with regard to the investment manager contracted to manage the VCT, if the VCT's Board oversees the appointment of a different management firm we believe it important to crystallise the VCT's performance under the former management up to that point, and then track the performance of the new manager from the date when it took over responsibility.



• '(Chg Mgr) ' indicates that the VCT has undergone a change in management contract. The First Trading Day that we have applied in these instances will be the date the current manager gained responsibility for the VCT. Therefore the VCT will be allocated to the peer group of VCTs originally launched in that period. It is important to bear in mind that we do not consider the performance of such VCTs (Chg Mgr) to be directly comparable to their peers, because the first trading date actually relates to the date the manager took over responsibility, not the original date of trading of the shares, when a previous manager launched the fund. This means that such a VCT is likely to be more than 70% invested in qualifying companies, compared to others that genuinely launched more recently.



• Under the column 'Features':
  (LL) - Indicates that we have categorised a VCT as a 'Limited-Life' VCT, i.e. a VCT that has a specific intention to wind-up after a set period of time.
  (AB) - Denotes a VCT that includes at least some distinct form of 'asset-backing', i.e. senior charge over freehold assets, underwritten returns from secure counterparties etc.

Last Updated: 27 July 2010