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Even a few of our detractors have now come around
AIM-listed Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) is certainly keeping its Brokers – SI Capital and Allenby – busy. Only in April the company raised £1.7 million, although the funds weren’t in the bank when the announcement went out. In March the company rattled the tin for £2 million – plus an additional loan of another £1.5 million. Now it has rattled the tin once again – to raise just £800,000 (before expenses) as the company strains to keep its head above water.
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.
I previously covered the ignominious delisting of Rutherford Health, formerly Proton Partners, from the Aquis lobster-pot. But I fear the denouement for this Woodford favourite has only just started, as a quick trip to Companies House shows and for those left holding the baby – the remains of Neil Woodford’s Equity (lack of) Income fund (now LF Equity Income Fund) and Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP) – there is surely more bad news to come.
At 3:42pm yesterday it was announced that Aquis lobster-potted Rutherford Health (RUTH) – formerly Neil Woodford shambles Proton Partners – is to delist, thus bringing to an end what must have been the most outrageous listing by Neil Woodford on the market today. This follows a management restructuring – getting rid of the CEO, the Chair and a raft of NEDs – after the company failed to raise new money and the cash ran out, leaving it reliant on bridging finance and the arrival of a Chief Restructuring Officer.
Aquis-listed Rutherford Health (RUTH) – formerly Proton Partners – announced this morning that it has secured bridge financing from shareholders including Neil Woodford’s former stamping ground of Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP) – formerly Woodford Patient Capital – and LF Equity Income Fund – the unsaleable rump left over from the Woodford Equity Income fund – to raise up to £10 million in the form of various loans costing 15% per annum. The old saying that if you owe the bank a quid you’ve got a problem, but if you owe the bank a million quid then it is the bank which has the problem is writ large here.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It was already clear that Aquis lobster-potted Rutherford Health (RUTH) was in big trouble as funds from a placing back in August had not arrived and last Friday the company had promised news of bridge financing this week. Back on 25th October my back-of-an-envelope calculator suggested that the company was already on the brink and on Thursday this week – at lunch time when nobody was looking – the company announced the departure of the CEO and the chairman. Did somebody say rats and sinking ship?
Last Friday Aquis-listed Rutherford Health (RUTH) advised that it was in discussions to secure bridge financing and that a further announcement would follow this week. This followed the non-appearance of placing monies originally announced back in August which were repeatedly put back. Is the company out of cash yet?
I start with the heartbreaking case dominating the news this week of the poor little boy murdered in the West Midlands. Then onto the silly nationalism that always surrounds ARM and why, as capitalists, we should ignore it. Finally lessons learned from the train crash at Rutherford Health (RUTH).
I end with a question for you. Who should feature in the Christmas carol here on ShareProphets? Past Scrooges include Chris Oil, Rob Terry, Neill Ricketts and Neil Woodford. Who should join that merry band of fine upstanding citizens? Before then I discuss a chat with a broker about placing ennui, Tungsten (TUNG), what was WPCT (SUPP) and Rutherford Health (RUTH) where we await imminent news of the bad variety.
Aquis lobster-potted Rutherford Health (RUTH) – formerly Neil Woodford favourite Proton Partners – has announced a deal to open new health clinics in partnership with BUPA. Great, whizzo……but there is just one tiny little thing wrong here!
Aquis lobster-pot listed Rutherford Health (RUTH) has announced yet another delay in its acquisition of Proton Partners International Health Care Investments LLC, UAE. The deal, originally announced on 31 August 2021 – along with a placing which is also delayed – was due to complete 21 days on from a share swap deed dated 28 August. Then it was 11 October 2021. Now it is 16 November and the ShareProphets bookies are offering generous odds on yet another extension after that.
I commented on Tuesday that Acquis-listed Rutherford Health (RUTH) seems to be having a bit of a problem collecting the placing proceeds originally announced at the end of August. The original payment day – September 13th – came and went, with an after-hours announcement that the deadline had been extended to September 23rd – yesterday. There was no announcement yesterday, but at 11.57am – ie lunchtime – today the company announced the grisly news:
This website has made no secret of its cynical take on the valuation of one of Neil Woodford’s most controversial investments into Acquis lobster-pot listed Rutherford Health (RUTH), formerly Proton Parters. There was a tiny investment made at its IPO allowing Woodford to mark up his original investment heavily, but since Woodford held all the cards apart from Rutherford’s management, there was nobody to sell and thus the apparent price was, we argued, totally illusory. We predicted problems when the cash ran out……
Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP) – formerly Neil Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) – slipped out a new but unaudited net asset value statement yesterday at 3.32pm and it was shocking: it wiped another 20% off the previously stated NAV to bring the official figure down to just 35.01p per share. That, against the fantasy 89.07p when the flagship Woodford fund, Woodford Equity Income, was gated on 3 June 2019.
I ask you to review the following three statements from Neil Woodford poster-dog Rutherford Health (RUTH) formerly known as Proton Partners and tell me why I should not view the managers as scumbags with an issue in the investor transparency department.
Neil Woodford’s shambolic Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) – now Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP) after Woodford’s disgrace – has announced the completion of an asset sale to bring in £52.9 million. In theory this is good news, but since the original sale was announced as being at a 19% discount and the vast majority of the cash is being used to part-pay the bank there really isn’t much to celebrate for shareholders.
It was announced on Friday afternoon by Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP), the former Neil Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), that the IPO of Immunocore on Nasdaq had gone ahead. We were offered some tasty numbers, but are they really true?
Aquis-listed Rutherford Health (RUTH), the former Proton Partners that Neil Woodford so merrily put his former fundholders on the hook to fund at a ludicrous price, has published its Interims to August 31 this morning. What a shambles!
Neil Woodford’s former Patient Capital Fund, now in the hands of Schroder under its new name (but not new performance!) Schroder UK Public Private Trust (SUPP) has released the January month-end update. Not as delayed at the 2019 year-end update which took almost two full months to appear), this is still remarkably late and it is easy to see why.
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?
Yesterday the FTSE All-Share, Neil Woodford's benchmark for his Equity Income and Income Focus unit trusts, dropped again - this time by 0.64%. But as predicted yesterday, the Woodford funds scored much worse with drops in NAV per unit of 1.83% and 1.56% respectively. The latest drop pushed Woodford Equity Income (WEIF) down to £2.93 billion in total funds - a whopping drop of 21% from the £3.7 billion it sat at before it was gated four months ago. And just so that we do not miss out WPCT, I see that The Telegraph has dumped it this morning.
Having been worth a total of £3.7 billion when it was gated at the start of June, Neil Woodford’s Equity Income Fund (WEIF) crashed through the £3 billion mark yesterday and as at midday was worth £2.987 billion according to Morningstar. By comparison, the FTSE All-Share – his benchmark – is almost exactly flat over the same period even before considering dividends. The underperformance is stunning.
Yesterday the FTSE All-Share, Neil Woodford’s benchmark for his Equity Income and Income Focus Funds, dropped 0.23% but for a change the Woodford unit trusts went up by 0.60% and 0.40% in NAV per unit respectively. Some good news for Neil: his Equity Income Fund has held on to the £3 billion mark for now, but redemptions continue at Income Focus.
Yes, folks, it’s that time of the month again when Neil Woodford updates us on his funds, and what is in them. The good news is that both unit trust (Equity Income and Income Focus) had net cash as at 31 August…….and Woodford Patient Capital (WPCT) didn’t.
Yesterday the FTSE All-Share – Neil Woodford’s benchmark for his Equity Income and Income Focus funds – was more or less flat. Income Focus put on 0.11% in NAV per unit, but Equity Income lost an impressive 2.09% to take it back down to £3.1 billion of assets. Over at WPCT we had after-hours news at twenty past six in the evening of yet another write-down (an un-named company) which knocked 5.5% off NAV as the bad news kept on rolling. But in the wake of a lending facility, Oslobors-listed Thin Film (THIN) shot higher and Woodford offloaded his remaining holding into the rise as announced at no-one-is-watching o’clock last night (twelve minutes past five).
The wall of bad news for Neil Woodford shows no sign of abating. Last week saw Eddie Stobart (ESL) suspended, his investment into laws of physics-bending Industrial Heat heavily marked down in a revaluation and two further biotech outfits written down to near zero. Yesterday the FD at Rutherford Health (RUTH) - the former Proton Partners - exited stage left on the eve of his reappointment at the AGM which kind of suggests to me there is a problem, Muddy Waters continued its attack on Burford (BUR) thanks at least in part to the excellent work of Drunken Sailor. And on Friday (no doubt after-hours) we will see the delayed Q2 results from Oslobors-listed Thin Film (THIN) which has been trying (and failing) to raise money, and is running out of cash fast. Where will the next shoe drop?
Following my weekend comments when I suggested readers have beer and popcorn to hand as Rutherford Health (RUTH), the ex- Proton Partners (PPI), has called its AGM for tomorrow as investors are asked to approve the share issuance required to take Neil Woodford’s £45 million of other peoples’ committed money, today the CFO has resigned!
Neil Woodford investee Proton Partners, the joke listing on NEX which has seen just one trade since IPO in February, has changed its name to Rutherford Health (RUTH) and sees a general meeting this week which seeks shareholder authority it issue more confetti. Why does this matter? Well, there is the outstanding £45 million due from Neil Woodford – and we know that the board of WPCT (which is on Neil’s hook for the whole lot) is considering sacking him. With a hat-tip to Cynical Bear, I fancy this could be an entertaining week.
