The Association of Investment Trust Companies (AITC), the trade body of the investment trust industry, has announced its intention to change its name to more accurately reflect the evolving investment company universe and the Association’s changing membership.
Growth in the UK-listed investment company sector has come largely from offshore-domiciled investment companies in recent years. According to the AITC, 26 onshore UK investment company launches worth more than GBP1.5 billion took place in 2001, compared to 15 offshore launches. In 2005, only 6 onshore investment company launches took place compared to 18 offshore launches worth over GBP2.4 billion.
Whilst these are not ‘investment trusts’ in the strict legal sense, the AITC says that together with investment trusts they are seen by the outside world as part of a single closed-ended investment company universe. As a result, the AITC favours a change of name, most likely to the Association of Investment Companies (AIC). The name change should be introduced by the end of the year.
The AITC also announced that besides representing investment trusts and offshore investment companies, AITC Membership will be offered to investment companies listed on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) that meet its membership criteria (principally that the company’s main purpose should be to deliver returns by having a diversified portfolio of investments).
The AITC is also discussing the possibility of extending membership to Venture Capital Trusts (VCT’s) with the VCT community.
“This is an exciting time in the AITC’s history," commented Daniel Godfrey, Director General, AITC.
"The investment company universe is continually evolving and it’s critical that we are always able to adapt to meet the changing landscape. We need to ensure that we represent the entire community of investment companies that have shared interests and which are seen by the outside world as one market, wherever they may be domiciled" he added.
The Association of Investment Trust Companies was founded in 1932 to represent the interests of the investment trust industry – the oldest form of collective investment.
The AITC has 222 members and the industry has total assets of approximately GBP78 billion.
A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series examining tax-sheltering arrangements for investors, including Forest Finance, Film Finance, Venture Capital, is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report5.asp
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