In August 2004, UKSA commenced a campaign to improve the performance and corporate governance of Venture Capital Trusts - see the following web page for more information including a Report and set of Guidelines for the management of such trusts: VCTs. Quester VCT3 breached the guidelines in several respects, particularly in respect of the disclosure of information on the portfolio holdings. It also is one of the worst performing VCTs in terms of total return since formation.

Quester VCT3 Plc was selected as the the first company to be a target of the campaign and UKSA sent a letter to all Quester VCT3 shareholders in August 2004. Anyone who responded to the initial letter was sent the following letter that explains the issues in this company in some detail: VCT_Mailshot_Response_Letter. A brief history of the company is given in the following: QuesterVCT3_Note. Note that a full list of investments was disclosed in the interim report published in October 2004 and other responses were also promised to the concerns of shareholders.

Subsequently on the 31st January 2005, the Quester VCT 1, 2 and 3 companies announced that they were discussing a merger and such a merger was actually announced on the 20th May 2005.  UKSA then sent the following letter to all shareholders in the three VCTs urging shareholders to vote: Quester_Letter.

On the 13th June, the investors in the three VCTs voted on the merger proposals at an EGM and there was also a "court" vote. Results for Quester VCT3 were: In favour: 21 million, Opposed: 83,000 with a 45% vote of shareholders. Results on the other two companies were similar. This is a very good endorsement of the UKSA campaign, although clearly there are still concerns going forward about fund management. It was announced at the meeting that new directors are also being recruited to the new unified company.

In June 2008 at the AGM of Quester VCT, where it was renamed Spark VCT, an unusual event occurred in that shareholders voted down the proposal to pay a dividend on a show of hands, and likewise voted down the re-election of two directors. All resolutions were subsequently passed on a poll however. See Quester_AGM_Report for a full explanation. Note that at the EGM to approve the new management fee arrangements held a couple of weeks later, the show of hands vote was won by 2 votes to 1, but the proxy counts were 9.3m votes for, versus 3.2m against (i.e. 26% opposed).