I don’t apologise for banging this drum a bit more in the context of Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) as the transactions relating to Benevolent AI just look so wrong and WPCT shareholders should be fuming and raising hell. I also have a few more facts to share and two additional interesting pieces of information – one new, one old.
As I anticipated in my RM2 International (RM2) piece yesterday, the December monthly updates finally came out yesterday afternoon and I thought it appropriate to provide monthly updates on The Big Short in conjunction with those each month so here goes. Quick summary: it’s not getting any easier for Woodford.
I love Warren Buffett’s quote that you only find out who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out and after Woodford’s annus horribilis in 2017, it certainly seems to be easier and easier to find examples of his commando-style investing (thanks also to the pointer from ‘alcira16247’). Next witness for the prosecution, M’Lud, is Industrial Heat, a business that is trying to invent a “cold fusion” machine, an area of physics that most sane scientists appear to think is something out of a science-fiction novel. Not Woodford though.
I wouldn’t normally cover stocks listed on the Oslo exchange but Thin Film Electronics was mentioned in the comments of a recent Woodford piece and I also noted it was the Share Punt of the Week in the Daily Mail on Friday, so if it is good enough for them to recommend a Woodford-backed cash guzzler to its brain dead readers, it is appropriate for me to provide another side to that story, especially as the cash burn here is off the scale.
I’ve been smiling this week at the comments on Woodford’s website as the moderators are desperately sticking to the party line regardless of what is happening in reality or what Woodford himself is briefing to investors privately. Let me explain in the context of his Income Focus Fund.
I gather that Neil Woodford's office has been busy dealing with questions relating to our most excellent series of articles and podcasts over Christmas. I have been made aware of its responses which are detailed but still leave me feeling incredibly unsettled on two major factors.
I alluded to the swapping of the Benevolent AI stock between the two Woodford funds in my early chapters of The Big Short looking at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) but there are so many odd aspects to the saga going back a few years that it merits an Appendix to itself as it raises a number of serious additional questions for the Board in my view.
I made reference in my concluding part of “The Big Short” on Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) about a potential Appendix or two to deal with some of the detail, so here’s the first providing more information on the WPCT Board Directors which, as Tom has pointed out during his Christmas Eve Bearcast, are not particularly independent at all and there is a significant conflict of interest issue.
Well, it didn’t get quite the response I was hoping for but it did get one excellent response from Kayserasera who was pretty much spot on with his answers and wins the charity donation and bubbles – congrats! The answers are below.
I’m going to draw together my analysis on Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) in one piece now so that if you’ve actually been enjoying Christmas rather than reading Shareprophets, you can start here and work backwards. I will also add a few words of caution that I picked up from the book “The Big Short” itself.
Er….hi, just me again! This Chapter of “The Big Short” looking at Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) wasn’t in the original draft manuscript sent to my editor but as something truly astounding was pointed out to me in the comments of my piece yesterday, I thought I’d better add to the opus. Hat tip to Robert Dwek for spotting it.
Having looked at the unquoted risk and the level of debt and connected liquidity issues within the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), it is time to look at the tricky topic of valuation policy as it looks to me as if Woodford is taking a particularly aggressive approach, albeit a flexible one, to the valuation of the unquoted stocks (almost all the fund!) that casts further doubts on the underlying NAV.
Continuing my festive series on The Big Short, Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), having highlighted yesterday the huge unquoted risk within the portfolio and having to clean up after its big brother, the Equity Income Fund, I wanted to turn next to concerns I have over its debt levels which leads on to liquidity issues.
I started my festive series on The Big Short, namely Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) earlier by providing some wider context about some of the challenges Woodford faces particularly with his flagship fund, the Equity Income Fund, but let’s get into the details of WPCT itself. I’ll start with the ever increasing size of its unquoted portfolio and what appears to me to be a massive conflict of interest.
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.
First things first, I recommend that you should all have a go at the proper Woodford Christmas Quiz because, regardless of his investment performance this year, he can pen a good quiz (and there’s prizes too). Once you’ve done that have a crack at my alternative version celebrating his investment year.
US bear raider Kerrisdale has launched a savage attack on the largest holding in the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) the closed end fund managed by Nomates. The nature of the WPCT means that if Kerrisdale is even half right, Nomates is in big trouble.
If you want me to analyse a stock for you just drop me a line at sqmir@hotmail.com - Today I look at Real Good Food (RGD), Tungsten Corporation (TUNG), Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT).
