Prohibited Categories of Business

Under the Venture Capital Act VCCs are prohibited from investing in the shares of a company carrying on the following categories of business:

1. Financial services
2. Retail services
3. Property management or the rental, leasing or improvement of land*; and
4. Customs brokerage

Prohibited Investments

As per section 16 of the Venture Capital Act of 1994 as amended in 2005, venture capital companies (VCCs) cannot make or hold investment in companies where the investment funds are directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, to be used for the purpose of:

1. Lending
2. Investment outside of Trinidad & Tobago, except where the investment is directly in support of the activities of the company
3. Investment in land
4. Purchase of goods or services from a director, shareholder or other officer of a venture capital company (VCC) other than goods or services that are sold at fair market value to the company in the ordinary course of the business of the vendor
5. Acquiring securities
6. Payment of all or part of a debt obligation
7. As part of a transaction or series of transactions directly or indirectly involving:
   • Purchase of treasury stocks purchase or redemption of previously issued shares of the company
   • Discharge of any or part of the liability of any shareholder of the company
   • Payment of dividends
   • Funding all or part of the purchase of by the company of any of the assets of a proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, trust or company above the market price.