Woodford dumping Provident Financial – by choice or under FCA instruction?

Amid all the hoo-haa over Neil Woodford’s transfer of unlisted dogs from his equity income fund (EIF) in return for Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) paper, it seems he has been again pressing the sell button. Of particular interest is the sale of 1.5 million shares in Provident Financial (PFG), shares over which only a few days earlier he had offered a letter of intent to accept the all-paper offer from Non-Standard Finance (NSF). What a spiv!!...

Neil Woodford keeps the FCA plates spinning a little longer

It is almost possible to feel sorry for Neil Woodford. Al three of his funds are overdrawn, performance has been dire and those nasty people at ShareProphets keep on poking fun at Britain’s most successful fund manager. And to cap it all it looks as though the FCA has been on his back too. And today dear old Neil has started a big swap of unquoted Woodford Dog paper for…..er….Woodford Dog paper in the form of WPCT.

Woodford Patient Capital Trust (#WPCT) – all-share purchase of £72.9m of unquoted ‘assets’ from Woodford Equity Income Fund

More Norwegian disasters for Neil Woodfjord (geddit?): Thin Film and Idex

morning the second of two Norwegian Neil Woodford dogs reported numbers to December. Thin Film (OB:THIN) announced more losses and SFA turnover in the wake of the abrupt departure of Richard Bernstein’s (of Crystal Amber)  announced on Monday. Idex (OB: IDEX) managed more or less the same, although it raised $25 million recently so at least it has cash to burn.

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

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.

Woodford – latest numbers show borrowing disaster in the making as chickens come home to roost

Woodford Investment Management has published its latest monthly numbers to the end of January from its Equity Income, Income Focus and Patient Capital Trust. At first glance it does not look too bad, but a more detailed examination shows that debt remains a central issue, as does redemptions, and Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) seems on the edge of imploding.

Proton Beams to Neil Woodford’s rescue – nope this is just another spoof c/o deadwood press cocksuckers

The Sunday Times “reveals” ( i.e. is told by Neil Woodford’s PR spinners) that his Proton Partners , proton beam centre operator, is planning a £320 million IPO and hoping to raise £50 million on, o-f all places, the NEX Lobster pot. This is a spoof but the deadwood press ( step forward Peter Evans and Sabah Meddings) are happy to assist the great one.

Woodford – slammed by Bestinvest in table of dogs

I pointed to Invesco and Woodford being named top dogs in the link to the article in the Telegraph at the weekend, but having looked through the latest issue of Spot the Dog from Bestinvest the data and conclusions are truly awful for Neil Woodford.

Tel: Woodford and Invesco top dogs in list of worst underachievers

BREAKING: Neil Woodford – cash crisis at WPCT as Neil busts his borrowing limit

An appertion came to me last night: it was the ghost of Cynical Bear, calculator in hand, telling me that the level of borrowing at WPCT has become a major problem for Neil-knows-best Woodford. And indeed it is: as at the end of December Gross Assets (ie before bank borrowings) stood at £969 million, according to Woodford. With net assets of 97.61p per share and 827 million shares that works out at net assets of £807 million and that means borrowing of a whopping £162 million, or 19.6% of NAV. Yikes!

Tomorrow’s Neil Woodford disaster today – Verseon

A note from the celebrated Cynical Bear last night got me looking into one of the very first investments made by Neil Woodford for the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) – that of AIM-listed Verseon (VSN). Dum dum-dy dum, dum dum-dy dum, you’ll see the Red Flags flying here……Surely this shows all that is wrong with Woodford!

And today’s Neil Woodford disaster is……..the equity income fund

Last night Woodford Investment Management released its latest update for the Woodford Equity Income Fund, to 31 December 2018. The fund had fallen to £4.98 billion as at 30 November 2018. At year end it had slipped again – to £4.67 billion. Oopsadaisie Neil, another £310 million gone!

Woodford - having failed to bring a boardroom coup at Stobart, now it's time for Kier

I see that Neil Woodford is reported to be leading efforts to replace the top executives of fully-listed Kier Group (KIE), according to a report on Sky News. This is, of course, in the wake of a rights issue to pay off debt which fell flat (to put it mildly) and relied on the underwriters to be completed….and in the wake of Woodford stating on its website in September that we had a reassuring meeting with management today, which plans to substantially enhance the company’s cash generative capabilities… Overall, the company’s outlook remains very encouraging. Share price then – around £10….now it is just a fiver. Oops!...

Who do you think you are KIDding, Mr Woodford?

The new KID, or Key Information Document, for Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) arrived in my inbox this morning. This is an FCA regulated document, and supposedly gives you an idea of the potential returns under various scenarios. It also tells us that it is categorised as number 4 on the risk indicator (up from 3 last time). So let’s see what we might make if we hold the fund for the minimum recommended term.

Neil Woodford's Twelve Days of Christmas

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...

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

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.

Tuesday’s disaster for Neil Woodford – Amo Pharma accounts out (late) – Woody on the hook for £6m more?

In October 2016 Neil Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) spunked £12.281 million with an investment into unquoted cash guzzler Amo Pharma. Amo has belatedly filed its calendar 2017 accounts and it looks grim. Suffice to say Britain’s most conceited fund manager is the sole institutional backer.

Keir-Blimey! Woodford raising more much-needed cash by dumping good shares

We all know that markets have been a bit skittish recently, which will mean that investors will be looking to sell unit trust holdings. And we know that Neil Woodford has faced the double whammy of redemptions and his cash-hungry dogs which need feeding. And on Friday morning Kier group (KIE) announced a rights issue: it never rains….

Immunocore: surprise, surprise –call me Mystic Meg…..

And so having seen the announcement that Immunocore had signed a deal with deal with Genetech worth $100 million, having reported the good news for Neil Woodford who could breathe a sigh of relief that he could keep his  wallet (full of other people’s money) I commented Still, I’m sure the $100 million will come in useful – might we now see publication of Immunocore’s FY17 results at Companies House? After all, it should have got its results in for FY17 by the end of September. One has to wonder whether the cash will be needed to get a Going Concern all-clear from the auditor

Immunocore announces good news - Neil Woodford can breathe a sigh of relief, for now

Privately held Immunocore, which forms part of the Neil Woodford estate, has announced some good news: it has signed a deal with Genetech, part of Roche Group, for the development of Immunocore’s IMC-C103C drug aimed at targeting the MAGE-A4 protein (Melanoma-Associated Antigen A4). The really good news is that Genetech is to hand over $100 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments, and upon establishing proof-of-concept there is an option to co-develop the treatment or license the treatment to Genetech for royalty and milestone payments. Needless to say, Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) rushed out a statement too...