‘All the original VCT players are selling out and cashing in’

Notable hires in recent years include Rosemary Banyard, who runs the Downing Unique Opportunities Fund.

Yearsley added that EIS also does not fit into Downing’s future plans. “They are realigning the business, they’re looking for [a] scalable [business model]," he said.

“EIS is not a scalable market; it is time-consuming and despite the high fees, it is not that profitable.

“They have some interesting products and they seem to want to focus on products they can scale, which makes perfect sense,” he said.

sally.hickey@ft.com