A review of financial performance evaluation models of investment companies

Economic growth and development, increased corporate and separating management from ownership, and subsequently agency issues, drew attention to the company's financial performance. Investment company as one of the premier companies of the capital market was introduced in the United States of America in the 1890s. Gradually investment company established in other countries. In Iran, they were entered the business world since1961. The importance of investment company is to the extent that is considered an important part of the capital markets and many investors use the services of these companies, because they don’t have enough time, financial resources, or necessary expertise to create a proper portfolio. So they depute it to investment company. As a result it is worthwhile and important for them to evaluate the company's financial performance. Many attempts have long been to achieve a model to evaluate the performance of the company in the world to provide investors a better assess of performance. This study is aimed to study these models and measures of performance evaluation in literature, in order to analyses the possibility of using them to evaluate performance of Iranian investment companies according to their circumstances and activities in Iran.