Woodford loses £28m as ANOTHER bet turns sour
NEIL Woodford, Britain’s most famous fund manager, must be wondering when his luck will change after another of his punts turned sour.
Woodford is the largest investor in roadside recovery firm AA, whose shares dived 28.1pc yesterday or 32.72p to 83.58p after announcing a dividend cut and major investment plans.
To rub salt into the wound, he added 6.8m shares to his holding in September, meaning he now owns a whopping 86.7 million shares, or 14.2pc of the troubled firm. It meant the value of his stake tumbled by a whopping £28m yesterday.
It is the latest high- profile shocker for the fund manager, who also has stakes in struggling doorstep lender Provident Financial and Capita, the outsourcer.
Shares in travel firm Tui were sent flying by hopes that tourists were beginning to return to Tunisia following a devastating terror attack where 38 people died.
Visitor numbers plummeted after a masked gunman opened fire on beachgoers in the resort of Sousse in 2015.
But now the Tunisian government says it is expecting a record 8m tourists this year after travel firms agreed to fly passengers to the country once more.
Last week tour operator Thomas Cook resumed flights for the first time since the atrocity while Tui has pledged to begin flying there again by the summer.
Tourist minister Salma Loumi said: ‘The return of British tourists is a very good signal for us.’ Tui rose 2.4pc, or 36.5p, to 1579p.
The FTSE 100 ended the day up 0.48pc, reversing a miniscule loss the day before. Elsewhere, investors in CVS Group, the UK’s largest veterinary group, were purring after a ringing endorsement from a major investment bank.
Investec has given the Norfolkbased firm a ‘buy’ rating and has increased its target price from 1445p to 1470p.
CVS, which has 450 veterinary centres in the UK and the Netherlands, has hoovered up 34 practices over the past year for nearly £34m, with deals worth around £40m in the pipeline.
Investec believes the deals could add as much as £5m to CVS’s bottom line next year. Shares notched up 2.6pc, or 29p, to 1128p.
However, a glowing broker note had the opposite effect on Hollywood Bowl, the owner of more than 57 neon-clad ten-pin bowling alleys across the country.
Despite Investec giving the firm a ‘ buy’ rating and predicting ‘attractive’ growth to come, its shares fell 0.5pc, or 1p, to 206p.
FairFX, the low- cost travel money provider, bought City Forex in a £6m deal.
City Forex offers payment services to around 2,000 businesses and 8,000 individuals and completes around 200,000 currency orders a year.
Ian Strafford-Taylor, the boss of FairFX, said: ‘The acquisition of City Forex is a key milestone in the evolution of FairFX and will immediately enhance the group’s earnings.’ Shares climbed 6.5pc, or 4.5p, to 74p.
Renewed speculation that US firms are eyeing a stake in hospital operator Spire Healthcare proved to be a tonic for the firm’s falling share price.
FTSE 250-listed Spire runs 39 hospitals, ten clinics and two specialist cancer centres across Britain. At closing, its shares were up 5.8pc, or 13.6p, to 246.6p.
AIM-listed miner Papua Mining had a tough day on the markets after announcing John Haggman, its technical director, had stepped down for family reasons.
Haggman was key in closing the deal to buy Australian precious metals miner BGM Investments last year, the firm said. Shares fell 5pc, or 0.05p, to 0.95p.