Investment Week has named Oxford Capital as a finalist in two categories in this year’s Tax Efficiency Awards.
The Tax Efficiency Awards are designed to recognise the most successful and forward-thinking providers in the areas of VCTs, EIS and BPR/IHT. The awards will also recognise investment providers who have helped to cultivate a greater understanding of the tax-efficient sector and its benefits and who work hard to communicate these to clients and advisers.
The Oxford Capital Estate Planning Service (OCEPS) has been shortlisted for the ‘Best IHT Portfolio Service’ award. The OCEPS can be used to shelter part of an investor’s estate from Inheritance Tax and has recently been rated ‘85’ by both Allenbridge and Tax Efficient Review.
Our sale of Oxitec has also been named as a finalist in the ‘Exit of the Year’ category.
Oxitec is a company that could save and improve lives all around the world. It has the potential to do so in part because it received EIS funding, and it had the support of Oxford Capital as it transitioned from university spinout to commercial enterprise.
The acquisition of the company by Intrexon Inc in August 2015, in a deal which valued Oxitec at more than £100m, gives Oxitec a platform to continue expanding its business, addressing health challenges in numerous countries. Oxitec’s story shows how EIS investment can be a powerful catalyst, turning the UK’s scientific expertise into valuable and globally important companies.
The Zika crisis has recently shone the spotlight on Oxitec and its extraordinary approach to controlling disease-carrying insects. Oxitec breeds male mosquitos that cannot survive to reproductive age. When released into local populations, these sterile insects mate with native females, diminishing the next generation. The technology has the potential to address not just Zika, but other insect-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria, as well as controlling insects that destroy food supplies. It can replace chemical pesticides, which are less effective than Oxitec’s solution and cause damage far beyond the target species.
The awards will be judged by a panel of industry experts, and the winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 2 December 2016.