The term ‘participation share’ refers to the number of shares owned by an investor in the portfolio of a fund. The participation shares of an investment fund are similar to the shareholdings owned by the partners of a company. In the same way as a group of investors buy shareholdings to be partners of a company and to own certain rights over that company, investors may buy participation shares to be partners of a portfolio of an investment fund. The difference is that the partners of a company may participate in the management of that company, but participation share holders may not participate in the management of that investment fund.