Responding to the latest news on Woodford’s fund, Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at investment platform AJ Bell, comments:
“The latest letter to investors at least gives them a date when they can expect the first return of their money, with the payment being made on 20th January. Investors will get a little over half the current fund value back on that date, representing £1.65bn. This values the total fund at £2.95bn, with the valuation having been written down further in the past few months in the unquoted part of the portfolio.
“The valuation now represents a near 19% loss for investors since the fund gated at the start of June, and the fund has delivered a 3.2% loss since the 15th October, as Link wrote down the value of some of the unlisted assets.
“While the initial liquid assets have been sold, now the hard word begins. Link’s letter indicates that investors are likely to be waiting for some time before they get all their money back as it appears that progress on selling the unlisted and highly illiquid assets has been very slow, with none sold so far and no date for when a sale is likely.
“It’s likely that Park Hill, which is running the sale of these assets, has had offers but none that it deems acceptable. Link has also warned that the remaining 21% of the fund in more illiquid listed assets will also take a while to offload.
“Investors can take some solace in the fact that some of the assets that have been sold to date have been reinvested back into FTSE 100 trackers, so they will have benefited from some of the post-election bounce the index has seen so far today, however this is likely to be scant consolation.”