Guinness Asset Management’s Guinness AIM EIS 2014 – a discretionary managed service that will invest in AIM-listed companies through the tax-efficient EIS structure – is now open for investment.
Guinness AIM EIS 2014 is targeting capital growth by making investments in AIM-listed companies that qualify for EIS reliefs.
Changes in 2012 allow larger companies to benefit from EIS tax reliefs. These changes include increasing the maximum number of employees from 50 to 250 and the maximum gross assets from GBP8m to GBP16m following an investment. As a result the number of AIM-listed companies that can benefit from EIS tax reliefs has increased. In addition, the recent improvement in the economic climate has seen an increased number of IPOs and new share issues by AIM-listed companies, providing an active market from which the investment manager can select investment opportunities.
AIM-listed companies have an additional attraction to EIS investors in that there is liquidity in the shares by virtue of their listing, enabling investors to exit more readily after the EIS three year holding period.
The manager aims to deliver returns in excess of GBP1.30 to investors (GBP1.60 including GBP0.30 EIS Income Tax Relief) net of all fees per GBP1.00 invested.
Guinness Asset Management will defer all its fees until they can be paid from the proceeds of investments. This is a departure from traditional fee structures for EIS offerings and enables the investment manager to invest up to 100 per cent of an investor's subscription in EIS qualifying companies. Investors may claim EIS tax reliefs on the sums invested, so this structure helps maximise this amount for investors.
In addition, Guinness AIM EIS 2014 is structured as an approved fund, which eases the administrative burden for investors. Investors will receive one EIS 5 certificate once their Subscriptions have been invested, rather than receiving multiple certificates as is the case with unapproved funds.
Guinness AIM EIS 2014 will be managed by Andrew Martin Smith, with assistance from Shane Gallwey and Hugo Vaux.
They are supported by an investment committee that complements the team with the experience of Tim Guinness, Edward Guinness and Lord Flight, chairman of the EIS Association.
Martin Smith says: "The changes in EIS legislation allowing us to invest in a larger range of companies, coupled with the increased new issuance from AIM-listed companies, has made this an attractive area of investment for us and gives investors the opportunity to gain exposure to companies at interesting stages of development.”
