What Went Wrong at Woodford – a forensic investigation

As a direct equities investor, I’ve never taken much interest in funds, but you couldn’t avoid the Woodford Capital saga. Stockopedia HQ is in Oxford, and it was notable that Neil Woodford decided to set up shop on the ring road here. Initially raising a few billion, before growing assets under management well above £10bn. We tried to interview him a few years ago, but our request was turned down. They were too busy to reply. To begin with, all you heard about was success. Asset growth, strong performance, fund launches. I received a lot of Hargreaves Lansdown marketing materials at the time, with very glossy pictures amp; interviews of Woodford that I skimmed. I remember the Patient Capital Trust launch and its positioning as an exceptional opportunity. But I passed on all of these. As mentioned, I’ve just had no interest in funds. In 2017 the story began to unravel, with large redemptions and rumours of too many illiquid holdings. Poor performance, then more problems and more redemptions. It began to get interesting, then scandalous. Performance dived with the main fund – the Woodford Equity Income Fund – falling by more than 40% peak to trough. It’s now…