New Century AIM VCT plc
For the six months to 31 August 2022

Chairman’s Statement

The past six months has been a very difficult one for New Century, not just from a Stock Market point of view, but also with dealing with the many obstacles we had to face.

I would like to first apologise for the time it has taken to commence the return of your funds. The previous Board and our investment managers were opposed to the winding up of your fund. Instead of supporting the wish of the majority of the shareholders, they did their utmost to prevent such moves. John Brice, the fund’s former chairman with the support of myself put forward a motion to remove the Board with the exception of myself. The opposition to the former Board was so overwhelming that all the directors, with the exception of myself felt they were directly opposed to the wishes of the majority of the shareholders and decided to resign from the Board. John Brice and his colleague, Simon Bragg were appointed to the Board with a view to returning funds to the shareholders.

With regard to winding up the fund, we took legal advice as to the best way to achieve this. It was decided that the simplest and cheapest way to carry this out would be to wind the fund down. This required a legal document to be prepared by our lawyers which had to be approved by the FCA and then be voted upon by the shareholders. A resounding 100% of the shareholders who voted, voted in favour of the winding down of the fund. Unfortunately, by the time the approvals were met, we were already facing a bear market in the AIM market.

We are indebted to Simon Bragg who helped enormously in the legal process and in the preparation of the accounts, all without any remuneration. Having successfully helped us prepare the way for winding down the fund, Simon decided to step down from the Board to concentrate on his other interests.

Our previous auditors decided to withdraw from the audit of vct’s and we had to spend time getting quotes for a replacement auditor. At the same time, Oberon decided to terminate the bookkeeping facility that they provided to us. We have now successfully found new auditors and bookkeepers.

Oberon also decided that they were no longer going to provide us with the facility to make announcements for us to the London Stock Exchange. To set up a new facility, New Century had to first set up its own website incorporating my personal email linked to it. Although that involved much work, I’m pleased to say that we managed to set this up for less than £15.

For 17 years, M D Barnard & Co Ltd and more laterally, Oberon had settled the few invoices that we had to pay from any cash we held with them. Oberon decided that they were no longer going to pay third parties on our behalf. This meant that we had to obtain our own bank account. I imagined that this would be a relatively simple task but having tried around 25 banks, we have been unable to find a replacement bank. Initially, we found that one obstacle was that John Brice was a non UK resident and this proved to be a deterrent to several banks taking us on. To improve our chances of securing a current account with a bank, John Brice agreed to step down. We would like to thank him for his contribution which was also without remuneration. Until we secure a bank account we are unable to pay a dividend. I am personally covering any of the fund’s invoices and will be refunded when we eventually obtain a bank account.

John has been replaced by Spencer Crooks who was one of the founders of Winterflood Securities who are specialist dealers in the AIM market. His knowledge of this market is proving to be extremely helpful with regard to the winding down of the fund.

We have taken a policy decision to initially dispose of the more risky investments. We are particularly concerned about loss making companies that have low cash reserves and which are likely to have to come to the market for fresh funds. With interest rates rising and confidence in the market waning, we believe it will become more and more difficult for companies to raise fresh cash. This could lead to new shares being issued at a large discount to their prevailing share prices and in the worst cases, could lead to some of those companies being unable to survive. We have avoided quick fire sales of our holdings but instead been careful with the way we have conducted our selling with a view to trying to maximise the proceeds from sales. Some of the holdings have been quite large and it has not always been easy to liquidate them in one go. Nevertheless, we have successfully sold all the holdings where we have had concerns. Since the beginning of the company's financial year, this has involved the complete exit from fifty holdings. With the recent sales the fund is now 46 % liquid and allows us to pay back a dividend of 28p per share. As soon as we can obtain a bank account, we plan to pay the maximum dividend that we can. Following these sales, the fund is now comprised of much higher quality stocks which are better placed to withstand any economic shocks and to participate from the eventual recovery.

Michael Barnard
8 November 2022

Unaudited Balance Sheet

Unaudited Statement of Comprehensive Income
(incorporating the revenue account)

Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity (continued)

Unaudited Cash Flow Statement

Notes to the Accounts

This interim financial information and the unaudited interim accounts for the six months to 31 August 2022 from which it has been extracted, are the responsibility of the directors and were approved by them on 8 November 2022, do not constitute statutory accounts within the meaning of Section 434 of the Companies Act 2006 and have not been delivered to the Registrar of Companies.

The Company is an investment company as defined in Section 833 of the Companies Act 2006. The unaudited interim accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Financial Reporting Standard 104 Interim Financial Reporting (March 2018) and with the Statement of Recommended Practice for Investment Companies re-issued by the Association of Investment Companies in November 2014 and updated in April 2021.

The unaudited interim accounts have been prepared using accounting policies that the company applied in the accounts for the year ending 28 February 2022, incorporating FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The company considers these accounting policies will be used in the accounts for the year ending 28 February 2022.

Listed, AIM or AQSE Markets-traded investments are stated at market value, which is based upon market bid prices at the balance sheet date. These would all meet tier 1 of the fair value hierarchy.

7,860,937 Ordinary Shares of 10 pence each were in issue throughout the period under review.

The net asset value per share, using bid-prices to value the fund’s investment portfolio, at 31 August 2022 was 67p (at 28 February 2022: 98p; 31 August 2021: 121.6p).

On the 22 September 2021 a dividend of 9p per share was paid to shareholders.

There have not been any significant events since the balance sheet date.

New Century AIM VCT plc is managed by Oberon Investments Limited (‘OIL’). Under the terms of the management agreement OIL is entitled to a fee (exclusive of VAT) equal to 1% per annum of the net assets of the company. During the period the management fee was £48k (the year ended 28 February 2022: £65k, the period ended 31 August 2021:

£27k).

Bearing in mind that the assets of the Company consist mainly of marketable securities, the directors are of the opinion that at the time of approving this interim financial information, the company has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason, they continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing this interim financial information.

Copies of the Interim Report to Shareholders have been sent to shareholders and are available at the Company’s Registered Office: Tricor Secretaries Ltd, 4th Floor, 50 Mark Lane, London EC3R 7QR.

Directors, Investment Managers and Advisors

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