AIC consults members over VCT rule change

The Association of Investment Companies is consulting members over whether to lobby for a change in how venture capital trusts are regulated, Investment Week can reveal.

The trade body may lobby for a removal of the rule which prevents VCTs adding to a holding once it becomes worth more than 15% of the overall assets within a VCT. Instead, the AIC wants to see a move to a “soft test” rule already used by investment trusts. As the name suggests, the soft test is a much more flexible rule, whereby managers and boards of trusts have only to ensure “all or substantially all of the business of the company is investing in shares, land or other assets with the aim of spreading investment risk.” This is opposed to a specific cap on the maximum size a singl...