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 persons 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, held 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 eases in which syndicates are commonly formed will be found in F . B . Palmer's Company Precedents, loth ed., vol. i. pp . 129 seq .