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Published 22 December 2018, 16:31
‘Twas the night before Christmas and the man who liked to be known as Britain’s Buffett paced up and down his bedroom, deep in thought. Attending the local carol service at the Church nearest his Country Estate, Neil Woodford felt that he had so much in common with the wise men but like the Shepherds he was this evening of a troubled mind.
Published 24 December 2018, 01:18
A spot of maths and it seems that we were all wrong! In the prospectus for the rights issue by Kier Group (KIE) we were told that Neil Woodford was sitting on 13,797,000 shares, or 14.13%. We were also told that if he took up his rights in full he would hold 22,903,020 shares, or 14.13%. We know that Woodford piled in for more shares after the rights offer was announced. So what did he end up with?
Published 21 February 2021, 13:04
For 20 years Jeff PressTrip built his name at the Mail on Sunday with his exclusive chats and scoops from Neil Woodford. The quid pro quo was that he blew the man off in print once a fortnight and he ensured that Mail on Sunday Readers ALL owned shares in the doomed Woodford funds. Even a day before Equity Income was gated, the Mail on Sunday urged its readers to show faith. But the corrupt old bastard (PressTrip not Woodford) wishes us to forget that and today again rails against his ex-mate saying how disgraceful is his planned comeback.
Published 25 October 2019, 12:56
Neil Woodford may have dumped his shares in IP Group (IPO) at 53p a few weeks ago but he collaborated closely with the company and its fortunes are in many ways tied into the scandal involving the man the Mail on Sunday, until recently, called Britain’s Buffett about once a fortnight. IP shares now trade at 62p but what are they worth? I commissioned resting fund manager “The Badger” who previously explained why, irrespective of who manages it, WPCT is worth only 3p a share, to produce a report. His work is below.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Published 26 December 2018, 02:51
If you enjoyed Neil Woodford's Christmas carol HERE and HERE and HERE we have a bonus for you. I guess the tune is familiar...
Published 20 March 2018, 03:16
I do hope that the FCA and the "Independent" directors at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) look into this matter with some urgency as we appear to have evidence today, thanks to Oxford Nanopore, that Neil Woodford funds have been stating their NAV in an unnacceptably aggressive manner. And that is the most generous spin on what has gone on.
Published 13 September 2022, 05:21
The FCA has warned a potential purchaser of fund administrator, Link, that it must provide up to £306 million to pay fines for Link’s Woodford blunders. Some of this may go to the victims of Neil Woodford. But there are likely to be other measures handed out by the chocolate teapots.
Published 18 April 2021, 13:23
In his soft interview with Lucy Barton of The Daily Telegraph on 13 February of this year, we are told that Neil Woodford claimed: From the moment of the fund suspension Craig [Newman, his sidekick] and I received absolutely no income, or dividends or any remuneration from Woodford Investment Management, none, and indeed haven’t received any for the best part of two years. The accounts of Woodford Investment Management for the year to March 2020 are now out (two and a half weeks late). So was the disgraced fund manager telling a whopping lie? What do you think?
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.
Published 5 April 2019, 01:53
Two high profile sinners repenteth and the writing is now very firmly on the wall for Purplebricks (PURP) as it starts a year when it will almost certainly run out of money. The sinners: broker Berenberg and Britains's most conceited fund manager Neil Woodford.
Published 5 June 2022, 11:25
It is a strange situation that we now have plenty of referrals to the Woodford fiasco in the mainstream media, but it is Link, not Woodford, which is being sued by former investors who lost piles and piles of money. Woodford made the investment decisions, he called the shots: he was the man in charge. Yet it is not he who faces being sued.
Published 10 June 2021, 13:33
Thanks to Winnileaks I have obtained an explosive document prepared by Neil Woodford in January 2018 in which he answers questions put to him by Old Mutual for whom he – at the time – managed a value fund. I publish it in full and it is explosive in part because Woodford – for once – shows a degree of honesty in what he says. And that makes it all the more damning. If the FCA can be bothered to read this it explains in a nutshell why Neil Woodford should never again be allowed to manage other folk’s cash.
Published 19 September 2019, 11:54
This story is about grubby nepotism, egregious compensation schemes, and aggressive business strategies, with an old-fashioned, car auction house at its heart. It threads together the microeconomics of executive incentives with the macroeconomics of the credit cycle.
Published 17 October 2019, 11:01
Well, there were no redemptions yesterday as both Woodford Income Focus and Woodford Equity Income are now gated. But the letter from Link (the ACD) telling Income Focus’ investors of the suspension of dealings seems to me to be a little misleading as it looks to me to be an attempt to re-write history.
Published 19 January 2020, 13:02
Terry Smith's funds were not recommended to its clients by Hargreaves Lansdown (HL). Those of Neil Woodford were. Of course, that was noting to do with the fees Hargreaves received from the two forms. No, not at all. In his annual newsletter the great Smith has slated Woodford. There is nothing that should surprise ShareProphets readers but it is all good stuff. Smith opines:
Published 8 August 2019, 09:28
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. So the Muddy Waters report was indeed about AIM-listed Burford Capital which duly crashed by 46% yesterday, to add to the 19% drop on Tuesday, and Neil Woodford’s second biggest stock pick is…er….no longer his second biggest investment. I rather doubt it is in his top ten now. The press, as predicted, has been baying for blood and the queues of gated Woodford Equity Income Fund investors looking to get their money back before any more of it just disappears into thin air will be lengthening. So let’s take a look at the effect of the Burford collapse on the Woodford empire.
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