Investors have been trapped in the fund for over 1,000 days !
By Kristen McGachey, 15 Mar 22 Portfolio Adviser
Woodford Equity Income investors may now be waiting until 2023 before they see the rest of their money, as Link Fund Solutions reveals it has made little progress in selling the fund’s most illiquid holdings.
In November, Link Fund Solutions, the fund’s authorised corporate director, told shareholders it expected to offload the remaining assets in Neil Woodford’s defunct fund by the end of 2022.
However, in its latest update published today, it admitted it could take even longer to ditch the remaining assets, which are mostly hard-to-trade biotech names.
“At this stage we are unable to provide a specific date for the fifth capital distribution or for the completion of the winding up of the fund,” Link said.
“Due to the nature of the fund’s remaining assets and our commitment to achieving the best outcome for investors it is possible that the wind up of the fund may not be completed by the end of 2022.”
Link began the wind-up process on 19 October 2019, meaning investors have been trapped in the fund, now called LF Equity Income, for over 1,000 days.
While the ACD has paid back £2.54bn to investors via four capital distributions, they have not received a penny for over 15 months, with Link divvying up the proceeds from the healthcare assets sold to Acacia Research in December 2020.
