Monthly Archives: March 2021

Hot Business News Today

Why is a diversified portfolio essential when seed investing?

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Originally written by Lawrence Gosling on Small Business
Many investors and professional advisers are tempted to put all their Seed EIS investments with a single investment manager who they believe has a good track record, but by doing so they are potentially increasing their risk — it’s important to have a diversified portfolio when seed investing .
Many investment managers are investing at Seed EIS and with the follow-on EIS investments in the broad technology sector, partly because technology is a large sector which has accelerated in popularity since on the onset of the pandemic.
Two Seed EIS investment managers, Nova and Worth Capital, argue that diversification is essential because just as investor would not put all of their investments into a single company listed on the public markets or a single main stream investment fund, so putting it with a single SEIS manager is not advisable.
Andy Davidson, one of the partners at Nova based in Liverpool, says academic research consistently shows diversification is achieved with a portfolio of around 30 companies, whereas most Seed EIS funds have between 5 and 10 portfolio investments. Simple maths suggests an investor should spread their Seed EIS investments between three to five fund managers.
Matthew Cushen, one of

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Hot Business News Today

Covid debt drowning small businesses to the tune of £104bn

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Bank lending to small businesses hit over £100bn last year as SMEs scrambled for Government-backed Covid debt facilities.
Overdraft applications flatlined, despite gross bank lending to SMEs rising by 82 per cent to £104bn.
Around 1.5m Bounce Back Loan and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme Covid debt facilities had been approved by the end of 2020.
And nearly one third of businesses accessed grant funding last year, compared to just 2 per cent in 2019.
The pandemic has hit the smallest firms hardest, with 49 per cent of sole trader and self-employed businesses reporting a fall in turnover compared to 38 per cent of businesses with 50-249 employees.
Worryingly, despite the flood of cheap Government lending, one third of small businesses surveyed in the latest British Business Bank report expect to shrink.
Only one in five (21 per cent) were expecting to grow, compared with 28 per cent the previous year.
SMEs in business services (25 per cent) and production (23 per cent) sectors were most optimistic about their prospects for growth over the next year, with businesses in construction and other services sectors least optimistic (both 17 per cent).
Encouragingly, small businesses have amassed a war chest due to the

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