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Woodford investors won’t get money back until 2022

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
02/08/2021

Investors in the collapsed Woodford Equity Income Fund will have to wait until next year to get their money back.

In an update to investors, the fund’s administrators, Link Fund Solutions, said it had sold “the majority” of the fund’s assets but was still trying to offload investments at a pace which would “achieve the best outcome for investors”.

Link said: “Whilst it is not possible to provide a definitive end date to the realisation process, it is hoped that the sale of the remaining assets will be concluded in 2022.

“This means that we are unable at this time to provide a specific date by which the Fund’s wind up will be complete and all cash returned to investors.”

Among the remaining nine holdings are: digital bank Atom, Benevolent AI, a firm using artificial intelligence in drug discovery, and Mafic, which is involved in the production of basalt fibre in the US.

To date, investors have received £2.54bn from the sale of the fund’s assets through four capital distributions.

As of 30 July 2021, the value of the fund’s remaining assets is £123.57m.

Link promised a further update to investors by the end of November.

The Woodford Equity Income fund, run by famed money manager Neil Woodford, was suspended in June 2019 following an increase in redemption requests which couldn’t be readily met. In October 2019, Link confirmed the £3bn fund would be wound-up with cash returned to investors as soon as possible.

The fund managed around £10bn in assets at its peak.

In spite of the many investors still trapped in the Equity Income fund, Woodford has announced plans to return to fund management, although regulators have raised questions about his return.