Woodford Fund Management To Close

The management at Woodford have announced that they are to close the business with immediate effect. In consequence, management of the funds run by them is being taken over by new managers.

In consequence, it has been decided that the Woodford Equity Income Fund will liquidate the investments held, and the cash value returned to investors. Whilst this is being organised, the fund remains closed to withdrawals and additions.

It is anticipated that this process will start in mid-January 2020. Part of the portfolio is invested in liquid easily traded shares listed on recognised stock exchanges, and these investments can be sold quickly. However, in addition, a sizeable percentage of the investments are in private companies where shares will take longer to sell. In consequence, it may take months, or even years to fully liquidate the entire portfolio. Hopefully, more will be known early in 2020.

Clients with any concerns should make contact with us.

Fortunately, our clients have only minimal exposure to the fund as we have been actively reducing clients’ exposure to the fund, which now makes up less than 0.01% across client portfolios.