OPENENDED INVESTMENT COMPANIES

open-ended investment companies: translation

( OEICs)

A form of collective investment scheme which is designed to incorporate favourable aspects of both investment trusts and unit trusts. It is legally speaking a company which issues shares, like an investment trust. However, whereas an investor in an investment trust who wishes to realise their investment has to sell their shares in the secondary market, investors in an OEIC can sell the shares back to the company, as if it were a unit trust. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein financial glossary