Pennine Downing merges three venture capital trusts.

Investment Adviser, January, 2008

Pennine Downing has merged three of its VCTs after they shrank to an "unfeasible" size.

The firm's AGBP5.3m Ethical VCT and AGBP6.5m Aim VCT have been liquidated and their assets re-invested in the Pennine Downing Aim VCT 2, which was valued at AGBP9m, but is now worth AGBP17m.

The Pennine Downing Aim VCT 2 went live on 23 January, following an extraordinary general meeting in which the merger was approved.

The fund's management is outsourced to Rathbones Investment Management and run by Michael Cunningham.

Grant Whitehouse, company secretary at Downing Corporate Finance, said: "When the fund sizes fall below AGBP10m, you have to look at the administration costs and ask whether it has become unfeasible. There had been a steady...