Neil Woodford – what of the regulatory response?

Published 9 June 2019, 10:26

With Neil Woodford’s fall from grace following the gating of his equity income fund – which came as no surprise to readers of ShareProphets following our intensive coverage of the last two years. Actually, our first piece discussing Woodford’s woes was way back on 14 April 2015. Take that, the Sunday Times, which is claiming credit for bringing down Neil Woodford because of a piece in March of this year. But now, already, there are calls for changes to the regulatory environment - new rules, new hoops to jump through to prevent this happening all over again.

BREAKING: ShareProphets which exposed Neil Woodford backs Harcus Parker as lawyers most likely to help victims and do so quickly

Published 9 February 2021, 12:27

As the BBC and most in the City recognise, it was this site which exposed disgraced fund manager Neil Woodford with more than 1,000 articles, podcasts and videos starting in 2015. Now we are working with law firm Harcus Parker as the outfit most likely to get redress for victims and quickly. And here is why. 

Notes from Underground: Mapped - Cryptocurrency Regulations Around the World

Published 20 October 2019, 11:35

This regular Sunday feature of the most-read articles of the week has fallen to number 42, so I have pulled out my go-to feature to pull it up for next week: a charticle about cryptocurrency.

An Open Letter to Susan Searle at WPCT No 2 – Neil Woodford must be fired now to save our company

Published 5 June 2019, 13:53

Susan Searle, the fragrant chairwoman of Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), where I am a loyal owner of 10 shares, has yet to respond to my polite letter demanding she suspend the shares, fire Neil Woodford and undertake a strategic review. But events now force me to write again in light of Woodford’s incoherent video of earlier.  That suggests WPCT now faces a full blown crisis. The letter follows:

Notes from Underground - To the mainstream media, Neil Woodford just fell into their laps

Published 16 June 2019, 09:40

You, dear reader, know that the Neil Woodford story has largely been driven by ShareProphets (in particular, Nigel Somerville, Cynical Bear, and Tom Winnifrith) over the past two years so I hope that you are shocked by the lack of recognition we get from the Mainstream Press now that they have discovered the story.

NEX-listed Neil Woodford Dog Rutherford Health raises £20m in loans, but at what cost?

Published 18 October 2019, 09:16

Neil Woodford cash-guzzling NEX-listed dog Rutherford Health (RUTH) – the former Proton Partners – had been keeping a low profile in the wake of Neil Woodford’s sudden departure from the financial services scene. Of course, without Woodford around, there are questions as to who will have to foot the bill for his remaining £32.5 million funding commitment offered to Rutherford at listing in order to get the IPO away. Yesterday Rutherford announced a £20 million “impact-linked” loan facility from Triple Point Investment Management – but what are the terms? Is this money to replace the Woodford commitment? Is the loan secured or not? What is the interest rate? Is there an equity kicker? And what on earth is an “impact-linked” loan anyway?

Breaking: Neil Woodford fired from flagship Equity Income Fund, fund to be wound down

Published 15 October 2019, 09:34

Link, the ACD, to Neil Woodford’s flagship Equity Income Fund has, after liaising with the FCA, announced that the fund will not be un-gated, allowing investors to redeem units in December, but will instead be wound down. And Neil Woodford’s Woodford Investment Management has been fired with immediate effect. That is the death knell for it. Our extensive warnings, in more than 1000 podcasts and articles since 2015, HERE are now utterly vindicated, Neil is finished.

Neil Woodford: the stench of greed, the smell of failure is now dwarfed by the odour of bullshit, which the MSM swallows in full

Published 10 January 2019, 01:18

Yesterday we exposed the sheer greed and reward for failure of Neil Woodford, trousering a small fortune for just one year’s work, as investors in his funds lost a packet. Today the deadwood press have followed up and have swallowed bullshit without question. It is a sad sight and shows why the MSM is not fit for purpose.

UPDATED: Neil Woodford, Proton’s NEX flop of an IPO, the scam on unit-holders – this stinks

Published 25 February 2019, 02:47

Eight days ago Neil Woodford’s PR spinners told their gophers in the lacky corrupt deadwood press, aka Peter Evans and Sabah Meddings of the Sunday Times to write a big puff piece about how Neil Woodford’ backed Proton Partners was planning to raise £50 million and list on the NEX lobster pot. It has not taken long for that fake news to be exposed, as no investors other than Woodford himself have been prepared to back this IPO – something revealed in the prospectus out today.

Neil Woodford’s Christmas Carol: Chapter two (of three)

Published 24 December 2018, 02:33

‘Twas the night before Christmas.  Neil Woodford had pushed the apparition claiming to be the ghost of Christmas Past out of the window’s provided by “our locks are as safe as our dividends” Kier and had now bolted them firmly shut.

Woodford joke Proton Partners announces GM to change to a plc, but is the end nigh for Neil?

Published 29 July 2019, 16:19

NEX lobster-pot listed joke Proton Partners (PPI) has announced its intention to switch its registration to that of a plc and has called a general meeting to approve a number of changes which need to be made. But it looks to me as if Woodford Patient Capital (WPCT) is being lined up to take the rest of the shares in return for the rest of the £80 million - £45 million, following the £10 million and £25 million already ponied up – that Neil Woodford promised in order to get the listing away. That’s a problem for WPCT, which has today signalled that it may or may not (you can bet “will”) sack Neil Woodford. That’s a problem for Proton Partners and a big problem for Neil...

Woodford – a small detail shows what a disaster is going on: are we almost at end game for Neil?

Published 21 December 2018, 01:51

Woodford Patient Capital Trust  (WPCT)or his flagship Equity Income Fund? It is hard to know where to start for we have disastrous news from both today. How close are we to end game for Neil Woodford, a man happy to be described as Britain's Buffett.

Neil Woodford – a load of excuses tosh as he dumps WPCT. How long until he is fired?

Published 29 July 2019, 12:43

Two bits of news from Woodford Patient Capital Trust suggest that Neil Woodford is on his way out – or at least believes he is. Firstly, the Board at WPCT intends to tout third-party managers which may or may not result in a change of manager. But secondly, Neil has been dumping his own shares in WPCT – apparently to meet personal financial obligations, including a tax liability. Given that he has trousered tens of millions of pounds from Woodford Investment Management (WIM) over the last few years, that sounds like utter hogwash to me.

Woodford Patient Capital Trust: The Big Short (Foreword) – The wider context: Woodford’s problems with the Equity Income Fund

Published 22 December 2017, 01:15

My Christmas Quiz may have been too clever by half (one entry so far at the time of writing!) but I found it helpful in any event as the research I undertook made me realise that there is massive short potential across the biotech echo chamber participants with Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) being the best example for a couple of specific reasons. Accordingly, I’m doing a few pieces over the festive period outlining my analysis and raising some serious questions along the way for Woodford to answer. To start though one must provide some wider Woodford context particularly in relation to his flagship fund – the Equity Income Fund.

Neil Woodford Redemptions Watch: down, down, down as we learn (after hours, natch) of THIN pickings

Published 5 September 2019, 09:32

Serial no-one-is-watching o’clock issuer of bad news, Oslobors-listed Thin Film (THIN) announced last night at eighteen minutes past 6pm that Neil Woodford has offloaded another tranche of the company’s confetti to bring his holding down from just shy of 20% to 13.5%. Early yesterday the shares were trading at NOK 0.07 but closed at NOK 0.06, perhaps indicating again that valuing small illiquid stocks is all very well until you try to sell them.

Xeros Technology – Cynical Bear was right about this Neil Woodford Dog!

Published 27 November 2018, 03:35

Another day, another Woodford disaster story hits the headlines – this time in the form of AIM-listed Xeros Technology (XSG), which Cynical Bear had postulated would be this year’s RM2 disaster. Well, it’s run out of money again and guess who’s footing the bill (with other people’s money)?

Neil Woodford – Bank Holiday reading in the press this weekend

Published 19 April 2019, 09:19

As investors settle down for the Good Friday and Easter bank holiday weekend, Neil Woodford has had a fair degree of coverage to assimilate. Articles in The Times and the FT point to Woodford’s sale of £42 million worth of NewRiver REIT (NRR) to his former junior at Invesco – something which ShareProphets readers have been aware of ten days now (it is good to see the dead wood press keeping up!) Meanwhile Citywire reports that the suspensions of Woodford’s stocks in Guernsey may be resolved this coming week although we are not told which way. And Hargreaves Lansdown appears to be standing by its man, still, as it covers the recent results from WPCT – something covered here some two weeks ago.

BREAKING: Neil Woodford Disaster Rutherford Health To Be Liquidated: £240m Down The Drain

Published 6 June 2022, 13:36

Rutherford Health (RUTH), the former Proton Partners which listed at what was always a joke price on the Aquis (then NEX) lobster-pot, backed by a Woodford promise which cost his investors another £80 million, has finally admitted the game is up. It is to be liquidated. That’s around £240 million down the drain. This is a crime and you know who the main criminal is. 

Woodford Patient Capital: The Big Short (Appendix 1) – The (not so) “independent” Board of Directors

Published 27 December 2017, 01:05

I made reference in my concluding part of “The Big Short” on Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) about a potential Appendix or two to deal with some of the detail, so here’s the first providing more information on the WPCT Board Directors which, as Tom has pointed out during his Christmas Eve Bearcast, are not particularly independent at all and there is a significant conflict of interest issue.

Hargreaves Lansdown talks utter shite in insincere Neil Woodford Mea Culpa

Published 8 August 2019, 10:38

As it announced pretty decent full year numbers, shamed Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) did its best to pull the sting from the Woodford scandal by announced that CEO Chris Hill would skip his 2019 annual bonus altogether. But with respect the firm talked utter shite…