It is the second time that Octopus has been recognised in the awards, which are presented by GrowthBusiness‘ sister publication Business XL and investment bank GP Bullhound.

According to the judges, Octopus ‘has shown great ability to raise money, high-quality investments and strong regional coverage’. They added that the runner-up, Beringea, which manages the ProVen VCTs, ‘demonstrated consistently strong performance and headline exits such as Mergermarket’.

Chris Allner, head of Octopus Private Equity, comments: ‘We are delighted to win the award for VCT of the Year, which reflects strong performance over the last year from our Eclipse and Phoenix VCTs and our ongoing commitment to shareholder communications.’

The award coincides with the release of Eclipse VCT’s end-of-year results, which show an increase in net asset value per share of 30.3 per cent, to 126.1p, and announce a dividend payment for the year of 4p, taking the total return to 34.4 per cent.

During the year, Eclipse VCT disposed of four of its investments, realising a profit of £1.4 million. The largest return was from financial and pharmaceutical recruitment group James Harvard International, in which the trust’s investment of £1 million in November 2005 generated a return of 133 per cent, or 98 per cent annualised.

The VCT made 14 new investments during the year into companies such as Adrenalin Design, which owns the Goldigga girls’ clothing brand, audio-visual systems installation specialist Audio Visual Machines, and NPI Media Group, which publishes books on local history.