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?
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……
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.
You member Rutherford (RUTH), the company listed on NEX, now Aquis, on a bonkers valuation with Neil Woodford opting to put cash in at a far higher price than was needed so his funds could cut their unquoted holdings and book gains on earlier investments so earning more management fees for the disgraced multi-millionaire fund manager? Yes, that one. It is still going but it seems to have burned its way through all of Woodford’s investors' cash and some...
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!
This one company represents almost 20% of the gross assets of what was formerly WPCT and is now the Schroders run SUPP. It was a folly from the start and 1 big reason why Neil Woodford should be chucked out of financial services, now Rutherford International (RUTH), is, just a year after its IPO, fast running out of cash. I am not sure folks realise just how fast.
Merry Christmas Neil Woodford. Having made c£100 million from Woodford Investment Management you are planning a new Chinese venture as those Brits who backed you lick their wounds and count their losses. You are a crook, a spiv and should be in jail and facing a lifetime ban from financial services. If folks were not angry enough already, at 11.41 AM on Christmas Eve came another £15 million kick in the gonads. Cheers Neil, seasons greetings to you, your wife and your array of show jumping ponies.
Rutherford International (RUTH) formerly Proton Partners has today published interim results showing a £51 million black hole and the scale of this Neil Woodford disaster which will eventually cost his investors c£100 million.
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?
