Key details about the small-cap

Maven Income and Growth VCT 4 (LSE:MAV4) is a trust that aims to generate long-term capital growth and income, ticking both boxes. At the moment, it has a share price of 62p with a market-cap of £87m.

Over the past year, the share price is down 9% with the dividend yield at 7.54%.

For the savvy among us, the ‘4’ referred to in the name is the fourth different fund Maven has publicly listed. The leading private equity and property manager has different funds, with the mark 3 fund launching in 2001, and this one launching in 2004.

This means I’m getting access to a larger investment manager than one that simply operates a single trust.

How the trust makes money

The company tries to achieve returns of income and growth from investments in both public and private companies. In the latest annual report, the makeup was 68.1% in unlisted investments, 2.8% in listed, and the rest in cash.

I like this allocation because the minimum investment size in unlisted stocks is often very high for a retail investor. It’s quite hard to get this kind of exposure, which is why buying this stock is a much easier way to dip a toe in the water.

The largest sector currently invested is software and technology (34%). Next up is business services (22%), followed by pharma and healthcare (16%). I feel that all three of these areas are ones that can deliver profits in years to come. In particular, tech shares are rebounding nicely after a rather torrid 2022, with AI software the hot buzzwords right now.

Risks to be aware of

Last year, the business made 11 new private investments. Even though these all sound promising, the risk is illiquidity. What this means is that it’s very hard to sell a stake in a small company, especially if the shares aren’t freely traded on the stock market.

It also makes it harder to put an accurate value on the investment at any one time. So the share price versus the net asset value of the portfolio could be quite different.

Ultimately, I believe this is an investment that could yield some good results. To reduce risk, I’d look to include it as part of a well-diversified existing portfolio.

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