Woodford fund investors to receive £183.2m payout

Investors in the shuttered Woodford Equity Income Fund will receive a payout of £183.2m following the sale of several assets.

In a letter to investors on Thursday, Link Fund Solutions - the administrator of the now-closed equity fund which was run by former star stock picker Neil Woodford - said the payment would be made on or around 26 August. This will mean that a total of £2.45bn has been returned to investors since the fund started to be wound up.

"It is intended that further capital distributions will be made as and when suitable amounts of cash have been raised from the sale of the remaining assets of the fund, including further proceeds received from Acacia," Link said. "At this stage we are unable to advise you of the exact timing and amount of these future capital distributions as this is dependent upon the sale of the fund’s assets.

"Investors are reminded that the assets that remain to be sold are the less liquid assets of the fund and disposing of these assets may take some time."

Link also said that publication of the fund’s accounts for the year to the end of March 2020 has been delayed again from the end of August to the end of September "at the latest".

It said that while the audit is progressing "satisfactorily", there is a “significant” amount of work involved in finalising the financial statements and the detail of the post balance sheet events, including the Acacia transaction.

Laura Suter, personal finance analyst at investment platform AJ Bell, pointed out there is no sign of Link and the asset managers shifting the remaining illiquid assets in the fund.

"There’s no mention of a timeline or any progress having been made on the sale of the assets, with Link just saying the sale ‘may take some time’. This means the process will drag on for even longer for investors, who just want to get as much of their money back as possible and move on from the sorry saga," she said.

Suter said it was also frustrating that investors will have to wait even longer for the fund’s annual report and accounts. "This is another blow to investors who haven’t had access to a proper report and financial statements for the fund since the interim report for the six months ending 30 June 2019, well over a year ago.

"When they finally arrive the accounts will provide a bit more clarity to investors on the sale process and costs involved, but will now be over six months out of date by the time they are published."

At its peak, the Woodford Equity Income Fund managed more than £10bn. But a lengthy period of underperformance prompted a spate of investor redemptions and in June last year, to halt further redemptions, Neil Woodford suspended the fund, leaving around 300,000 investors trapped.