The sale of unquoted Tekton, a supplier of software to the UK construction industry, went some way towards British Smaller Companies VCT (BSC) realising a total of £2.21 million from the sale of its private and AIM-quoted investments last year.

The sale of unquoted Tekton, a supplier of software to the UK construction industry, went some way towards British Smaller Companies VCT (BSC) realising a total of £2.21 million from the sale of its private and AIM-quoted investments last year.

The stake was sold to private equity investor Inflexion for £900,000 – one and a quarter times the initial investment – and £200,000 of the proceeds have been reinvested into the larger group.

Full year results from the trust reveal an 8.3p increase in its total return, incorporating net asset value and cumulative dividend distributions, to 136.3p per share, a rise of 6.5 per cent. £1.4 million was poured into two companies floating on AIM and the unquoted Cater Plus, a Watford-based provider of catering services to the care home sector.

In April BSC successfully raised £9.7 million of new funds as part of a pair of new share offers. Chairman Sir Andrew Hugh Smith reassured that recent changes from the Chancellor relating to VCTs, specifically the demand that investments only be made in companies of fewer than 50 employees, ‘will have some impact on the industry but, with your board and its investment adviser already focusing primarily on this market, the changes are expected to have less of an impact on your company than some others.’