Woodford Equity Income Fund Suspends Trading

[AsleepInYorkshire]

And guess which one of us has funds with him. I'm new to all this investing game and played safe on the advise here to stick to the professionals. I opted to buy an off the shelf pick from Hargreaves Lansdowne which spreads across lots of funds - Woodford being one (about 2% I think)

Will I be next in line for a missold fund (PPI round 2) The HL site does specify they check and double check their choices. Im a bit cross to say the least. I have believed the rhetoric of a large firm. I get it shares go up and down - but not the whole bloody fund going bust.

Hmmm ... I wonder who is more likely to own their own yacht. Woodford or any one of his customers?

AiY

[AleisterCrowley]

And guess which one of us has funds with him. I'm new to all this investing game and played safe on the advice here to stick to the professionals. .....

As per above, I think mostly the advice would have been (and has been) to avoid managed funds, purely based on their inability to outperform the index in any predictable way.

I'm in the cheap Vanguard tracker camp (Life Strategy etc)

I'm also a hypocrite, having moved out of trackers into individual shares about ten years ago. Some poor performers have pushed me back into the cheap tracker fold. Carillion still hurts... and Centrica

[Tigger]

The LF ad system is somewhat of a comedian it seems.

On clicking to read the latest messages on this thread, I was shown a whole page advert for Burford Capital!

[UncleEbenezer]

The LF ad system is somewhat of a comedian it seems.

On clicking to read the latest messages on this thread, I was shown a whole page advert for Burford Capital!

Makes sense, dunnit? You'll get them for a much better price today than last week! Fill yer boots while they're ... erm ...

[EthicsGradient]

It does seem to be everything he ( Woodford) touches. You might almost think that his shareholdings are being targeted one by one...the only luck he seems to be getting is "bad"...oh, and a management fee.

The CEO of 'Muddy Waters' literally said on Radio 4 this morning "short sellers target the small companies Woodford has invested in, because he has a bad track record". About 20 minutes in: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007cv1

[seagles]

It does seem to be everything he ( Woodford) touches. You might almost think that his shareholdings are being targeted one by one...the only luck he seems to be getting is "bad"...oh, and a management fee.

The CEO of 'Muddy Waters' literally said on Radio 4 this morning "short sellers target the small companies Woodford has invested in, because he has a bad track record". About 20 minutes in: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007cv1

Also on BBC News website

[PinkDalek]

It does seem to be everything he ( Woodford) touches. You might almost think that his shareholdings are being targeted one by one...the only luck he seems to be getting is "bad"...oh, and a management fee.

The CEO of 'Muddy Waters' literally said on Radio 4 this morning "short sellers target the small companies Woodford has invested in, because he has a bad track record". About 20 minutes in: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0007cv1

Also on BBC News website

See also Burford's rebuttal and webcast set for 3pm, in more detail at Share Ideas here:

viewtopic.php?p=242697#p242697

[scotia]

More bad news today on the BBC news site
Eddie Stobart has suspended trading of its shares and announced that chief executive Alex Laffey will stand down with immediate effect, as the firm looks into an accounting error.
...
The company's largest shareholder is troubled fund manager Neil Woodford, who holds a 22.9% stake.

[westmoreland]

i put have roughly 8% of my investments (diminished obviously since) in this crock of shite. lesson for all - if you see problems, then sell. i saw the liquidity problem months before the suspension. i remember a comment on their website along the lines of 'neil is able to access the liquidity he needs from the more liquid parts of the portfolio', which was a clear warning sign. i commented at the time 'doesn't this mean the illiquid investments become more concentrated?'. i then dithered, thinking it would all pass over.

seems we get a new piece of bad news every couple of days now.

[Alaric]

The company's largest shareholder is troubled fund manager Neil Woodford, who holds a 22.9% stake.

Plausibly the suspended OEIC had already sold or palmed the shares off to the IT, but Industrial Heat, the "cold fusion" company had its value slashed in the IT.

[Dod101]

i put have roughly 8% of my investments (diminished obviously since) in this crock of shite. lesson for all - if you see problems, then sell. i saw the liquidity problem months before the suspension. i remember a comment on their website along the lines of 'neil is able to access the liquidity he needs from the more liquid parts of the portfolio', which was a clear warning sign. i commented at the time 'doesn't this mean the illiquid investments become more concentrated?'. i then dithered, thinking it would all pass over.

seems we get a new piece of bad news every couple of days now.

We have all dithered in this situation I am sure. Fortunately I have never touched Woodford but it might be helpful to see the full holdings he has as he seems very adept at buying what turns out to be rubbish. Surely he must be dead in the water now. Who would touch him?

Dod

[richfool]

I avoid people who think they know better than everyone else, thus I've never touched any Woodford products, even when TMF was singing his praises so often.

I am now trawling through the reports & accounts of my various UK IT's to check if any hold Eddie Stobart. So far I haven't found any, and I have checked small and mid cap holding trusts.

[scotia]

I had a look a the Woodford Holdings from the most recent published annual reports
Woodford Equity Income as at 31/12/18 had £75.5M invested in Eddie Stobart Logistics - 1.62% of the Fund at that time
Woodford Income Focus as at 31/1/19 had £10.27M invested in Eddie Stobart Logistics - 1.86% of the Fund at that time
Currently Eddie Stobart logistics has a Market capitalisation of £254M - its share price is unchanged today.

[simoan]

We have all dithered in this situation I am sure. Fortunately I have never touched Woodford but it might be helpful to see the full holdings he has as he seems very adept at buying what turns out to be rubbish.

Dod

In fact, I'd go as far as saying he seems to have been attracted to companies with dodgy accounting and high levels of debt like a moth to a flame. I don't know what his training was in, but it clearly wasn't accountancy!! Utilitywise should have probably been the first real warning sign of his incompetence in examining accounts to investors - a total crock using aggressive accounting and dodgy revenue/profit recognition. This seems to be a recurring theme i.e. Burford Capital being accused of such, and now Eddie Stobart Logistics.

All the best, Si

[PinkDalek]

Currently Eddie Stobart logistics has a Market capitalisation of £254M - its share price is unchanged today.

Suspended!

[scotia]

Currently Eddie Stobart logistics has a Market capitalisation of £254M - its share price is unchanged today.

Suspended!

That certainly makes a price movement difficult.
I'll keep taking the tablets

[jonesa1]

Industrial Heat, the "cold fusion" company had its value slashed in the IT.

I'm still baffled about how this company has any value.

[peka]

Alaric wrote:
'Industrial Heat, the "cold fusion" company had its value slashed in the IT.'

jonesa1 wrote:
'I'm still baffled about how this company has any value.'

It doesn't have any value, it's just that Woodford's funds haven't fully accepted that yet. Its technology is based on the concept of "cold fusion" which has been rejected as impossible by the vast majority of reputable scientists. Its value will inevitably be written down to zero eventually, unless Woodford can find an even 'greater fool' than himself to buy his stake in Industrial Heat which is incredibly unlikely.

[Howard]

Interesting article about Woodford Investment Trust in today's FT.

"The board of Neil Woodford’s investment trust is holding talks with potential new managers, as it weighs removing Britain’s best-known stockpicker from the listed fund that bears his name."

Apparently the board were not pleased that Neil Woodford sold a lot of shares in July and didn't tell them for three weeks. (Apologies if you knew this already, I wasn't aware he had sold such a large holding.)

https://www.ft.com/content/f3984b1c-e34 ... 5a370481bc

It's a short article and I didn't have to register to read it.

regards

Howard

[johnhemming]

Citywire have a related story
https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/n ... M_Daily_PM