UK 06:08 Friday, 6 November 2026
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Disclosure: I own shares in one or more of the stocks mentioned. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from ShareProphets). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
The all-important shareholder vote of the Core VCTs (Core VCT, Core IV VCT and Core V VCT) takes place tomorrow to decide whether the restoration of the Companies should stand and a formal investigation by new Liquidators Menzies into the conduct of the managers and former liquidators (Begbies Traynor) should be completed. If you have not voted yet, there is still time – even, it seems, if your holding was held by a Nominee in certain cases.
I have had word that Hargreaves Lansdown, A J Bell, Barclays, Rock Nominees (Charles Stanley) and Jarvis have systems in place to allow shareholders to vote their nominee-held shares, so if you have a nominee holding with one of those brokers and are quick it should be possible to lodge your votes by the 10am deadline tomorrow.
We are well past the possibility of sending in votes via snail mail, especially given that it is clogged up with the Christmas postal rush. But votes can also be lodged via email – a scan or photo of the completed voting form – to grees@menzies.co.uk by 10am tomorrow will do the job. Don’t worry if you don’t have the original share certificate or do not know the size of your holding – all votes will be checked against the shareholder register.
The vote was ordered by the Appeal Court and there seems to me to be no financial risk to shareholders – after all, these are limited companies. On the other hand, if the liquidators are allowed to complete their work and find anything wrong – and are then successful in Court – shareholders could be in for a big bonus, possibly in excess of the returns received to date.
The High Court has already deemed that there are serious issues to be investigated and my own investigations suggest there is much for the new liquidators to look at. That does not mean I am saying there is anything wrong; it means that there are things I want the professionals to look at for I am not an accountant or lawyer.
There is funding in place to cover costs to date, and further funding has been lined up in the event that the Liquidators do find something amiss so the vote seems to me to offer a no-risk investigation as far as shareholders are concerned. If the Liquidators find something badly wrong then shareholders would potentially be set for substantial additional returns. If the Liquidators do not find anything wrong or the resolutions fail then the funders would be the ones to carry the financial can.
I would strongly urge any holders to vote in favour of the resolutions and allow the investigation to complete. To my mind it would be a travesty if that did not happen. But the (now former) managers and the former liquidator would, I am sure, protest their innocence and urge holders to say no to the proposals. That is your choice and not mine – but either way I strongly urge all shareholders to vote by tomorrow’s deadline of 10am.
ShareProphets will bring you the results as soon as they are released and will be following what happens next with great interest.
Declaration: I hold shares in Core VCT and Core IV VCT and am sitting on the steering committee of the Core VCTs Shareholder Action group which can be found HERE.
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