Well, here we are again – another Woodford Unicorn has reported, this time Nowegian-listed Thin Film Electronics (OB:THIN) with its 2018 Q3 numbers, and yet another hungry mouth to feed needs feeding, with little in the way of revenue to offer any comfort. The report starts well, but….
The PR machine of Neil Woodford got its pliant servants at the Daily Mail and elsewhere in the corrupt deadwood press to make great play about how the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) was about to go into the FTSE 250 Index so meaning that Index funds would have to buy the shares so the share price would go up. Uh Oh! Late last night came an announcement from the LSE:
We have news this morning of Q3 numbers from Norwegian biometrics play Idex (OSE:IDEX). No doubt Neil Woodford’s team will extoll the virtues of the progress being made here, but I can’t help myself: look at the cash position!
Some of you may remember Cynical Bear’s amusement at the operational highlight reported by Woodford Patient Capital Trust in its April results statement:
“UNICORN HUNTERS: The Company is invested in four companies valued at more than $1 billion – Purplebricks, Oxford Nanopore, Benevolent AI and Immunocore.”
Cynical went on: WPCT used to have many more unicorns in the portfolio, Prothena and Theravance Biopharma to mention two very recent ones. I like to imagine that Neil Woodford is literally hunting them down, investing in them and then shooting them dead from point-blank range. Well, I have news: ShareProphets can exclusively reveal Woodford’s Unicorn Graveyard….
Over the past two years one salient feature of the Neil Woodford car crash is that every couple of months the Daily Mail or Mail on Sunday, which were the biggest cheer-leaders for Nomates when he set up Woodford Investment Management, runs an article saying “it’s bad but will get better, average down.” The trouble is that the Mail thesis is based on one big lie. At the weekend it was veteran Personal Finance hack Jeff Prestridge who landed an exclusive interview, i.e a blow job for Neil.
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) held, as at 30 September, 4.95% of its gross funds in unlisted healthcare stock Immumocore. I say gross funds because WPCT has taken on rather a lot of debt over the last while – presumably because Woodford ran out of cash and still had too many hungry mouths to feed. If the entire portfolio goes a load higher then of course being leveraged is a good thing. Unfortunately, it is a bad thing if the portfolio keeps of falling in value.
Slightly belated update on the end-September portfolio listings this month but the ‘good’ news is that I am no longer fighting this battle alone and a small, parochial rag called The Financial Times has started to pick up on the issues, although they don’t get all the story, natch!
Having noted that Neil Woodford has been dumping shares in our Big Short BCA Marketplace (BCA), I see that the sell-off appears to be rather more widespread. One wonders if Tom Winnifrith’s comments that after a market crash investors tend to sell up is coming true already, or is there another explanation?
Accounts for private companies such as Immunocore Limited are supposed to be filed at Companies House within nine months and thus, at October 11 2018 I wonder where the accounts for FY17 are for billion dollar unicorn Immunocore. I note on the Woodford Investment website that as at 31 August 2018 this investment accounted for 5.33% of WPCT and 0.75% of the Woodford Equity Income Fund (although I can’t see any income here!) And Woodford’s exposure here isn’t limited to just that, because the Dublin-based Malin Corporation (of which Woodford is the largest shareholder) is also on the shareholder register.
Well, maybe I am. Or maybe just misinformed, or I just don’t understand. I see that there has been a bit of bulletin board excitement over reports that the Share Centre is backing Woodford – in particular his Patient Capital Trust – “despite Brexit” but the logic seems to my simple mind a bit wayward.
Just when you don’t think that the goings-on at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) can get any more surprising, an RNS comes out of nowhere to make everything right in the world, relating to the unloved holding Industrial Heat. It seems that Neil Woodford can bend the laws of physics after all!
Following my piece this morning on Woodford (HERE), I note that Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) published its interims at the rather odd time of 9.45am today which ruins my competition to some extent. Anyway, there is some good news in there that I am happy to report but it still begs a few questions that I am also happy to ask in my general nit-picking way.
With the end-August portfolio listings coming out yesterday, it is time to update the story and it is not looking any rosier. In fact, quite the reverse. I think matters may be coming to a head here and I reckon Woodford needs a lucky break for once and pretty damn quickly.
To emphasise the point about the contrasting investment strategies of Neil Woodford and Terry Smith that I covered earlier today, I thought it appropriate to cover the health-tech AI spoof, BenevolentAI, that has just filed its results for the year to 31 December 2017 at Companies House (HERE). I am still struggling to find any evidence of anything other than a reasonably good concept here.....and it’s meant to be worth $2 billion!
It is hard not to compare these two behemoths of the UK fund management industry. Neil Woodford has (still) a great long-term track record but the recent respective performances of their flagship funds are chalk and cheese and now Terry Smith is looking to encroach on Woodford’s territory further with a small company investment trust too.
I smiled at yesterday’s announcement from Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) summarising the “summer of milestones” achieved across the portfolio as I imagine that is just buttering up the audience before the bevy of bad news hits. From my point of view, September is going to be a hellish month for Mr Woodford so welcome to ‘I-Spy Woodford’s September Hell’
There is good news for Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) in the end-July portfolio listings that came out yesterday, ironically due to a bit of help from the Woodford’s flagship fund, the Equity Income Fund. More interestingly, I think I have finally worked out how the Equity Income Fund is getting round its 10% unquoted stock limits which makes shocking reading if correct.
Continuing my leisurely weekend stroll through the cash-guzzling listed stocks in Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), I’ll look at his second Norwegian dog, Thin Film Electronics, as its half year results came out yesterday.
Neil Woodford doesn’t have many quoted stocks in Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) but I thought I’d look at three classic picks this weekend, two of which I’ve touched on before, the third being a brand new entrant. I’ll start by catching up with the two Norwegian quoted companies in the portfolio – first up, Idex.
I appreciate that the heading seems like a bold claim with such stiff competition but with Atom Bank putting out its results or the year to 31 March 2018 this week, I do think it is a serious contender.
