SYNDICATE, a term originally meaning a body of syndics. In this sense it is still sometimes used, as at the university of Cambridge, for the body of members or committee responsible for the management of the University Press. In commerce, a syndicate is a body of person who combine to carry through some financial transaction, or who undertake a common adventure. Syndicates are very often formed to acquire or take over some undertaking, hold it for a short time, and then resell it to a company. The profits are then distributed and the syndicate dissolves. Sometimes syndicates are formed under agreements which constitute them mere partnerships, the members being therefore individually responsible, but they are now more generally incorporated under the Companies Acts.
The more usual cases in which syndicates are commonly formed will be found in F. B. Palmer's Company Precedents, 10th ed., vol. i. pp. 129 seq.