By Annabel Brodie-Smith
Do you remember the Beatles releasing Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? That takes you back to 1967 and since then three investment companies have raised their dividends every year consecutively for fifty years – City of London, Bankers and Alliance Trust. Turn to the next page to find out more about these and the other seventeen dividend hero investment companies which have increased their dividends for at least twenty years or longer.
Time is ticking as the end of the tax year approaches. ISAs are nearly 18 years old so in our article on page five, we’ve examined the best performing investment company ISAs over 18 years. It’s interesting to see that the top performing investment company sector over the last 18 years is Sector Specialist: Biotechnology & Healthcare, up a whopping 1,313%.
Continuing with the end of the tax year theme, we’ve also looked at Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) which provide finance and support to small and high risk companies. The Government offers generous tax breaks to compensate investors for the risks involved. To find out more about VCTs, what they invest in and the benefits to the economy please watch the video below where I talk to VCT managers Patrick Reeve, Managing Partner of Albion Ventures and David Hall, Managing Director of YFM Equity Partners.
Patrick Reeve, Managing Partner of Albion Ventures has also written an interesting article on the social value of VCTs. And finally, we reveal the top twenty VCTs and the dividends they have paid over the last ten years.
See you next month.
Annabel Brodie-Smith, Communications Director, AIC