Woodford blamed as IP shares tumble 9pc

THERE are very few fund managers who become household names.

Unfortunately for Neil Woodford, this summer he has become cemented in the public psyche – and newspaper headlines – for all the wrong reasons.

The veteran fund manager’s flagship Equity Income fund was shuttered in June after a crisis of confidence sparked investors to start withdrawing their cash.

Because Woodford often locked up his investments in small or unlisted companies, this created a bigger problem than it might have for other managers, as it was difficult for him to access cash at short notice. And the shambles has now knocked IP Group, a FTSE 250-listed investment company that backs small private or listed technology firms.

Its stock sank 9.2pc, or 6.4p, to 63.1p, after it blamed the difficulties with Woodford’s investments for its portfolio shrinking by 3pc in the first six months of the year.

Woodford, IP Group’s secondlargest shareholder with holdings in several of its investments, was a keen backer of early-stage healthcare companies. IP Group claims investors have been put off by Woodford’s bad luck. An announcement from Barclays on Monday that it faces new PPI-related costs of up to £1.6bn failed to weigh on its shares. They rose 4.9pc, or 6.9p, or 147.68p, Analysts were confident on the outlook, with Ian Gordon at Investec saying a worst-case scenario would be Barclays halving its share buyback to £500m.

The FTSE 100 reversed early losses to close 0.44pc, or 32.14 points, up at 7267.95 while the

FTSE 250 finished 0.31pc, or 60.41 points, higher at 19,738.86, helped by a big jump for Cairn Energy.

The oil and gas group swung back into the black for the six months to June 30, posting pre-tax profits of £35m compared with a loss of £488m in the same period last year. It has upgraded its full-year guidance – which will now be between 21,000 to 23,000 barrels of oil per day. It was also upbeat about production in the North Sea. Cairn surged 12.9pc, up 22.9p, to 200.2p.

AIM-listed i3 Energy Group had worse luck in its North Sea operations. It sank 45.3pc, or 25.3p, to 30.5p, after it said a well drilled to find out how big an oil reserve was, missed the reserve entirely. It will go back to its geological data before trying again.

Shares in business publishing and events company Euromoney rose 2.6pc, or 36p, to 1440p, after it launched a strategic review of its asset management magazines, which includes analysis groups BCA and Ned Davis Research and Institutional Investor.

Genus initially lost ground after a US court ruled that some of its bovine semen technology infringed three patents in part of a longrunning dispute with rivals Inguran and Cytonome. But it closed up 0.9pc, or 24p, at 2854p.

The same move deployed by Greggs this year has paid off for

Hilton Food Group, whose profits were boosted by tapping into the fast-growing vegetarian market.

It recently bought a 50pc stake in Netherlands-based veggie and vegan food maker Dalco Food.

Pre-tax profits rose by 10.6pc to £23.2m, while shares lifted a more modest 1.2pc, or 12p, to 990p. But at fellow food group Bakkavor, which makes ready meals for supermarkets such as Marks and Spencer and Waitrose, profits tumbled after a ‘challenging’ first half in the UK.

Profits slid 59pc to £19.5m as revenue increased 1.4pc to £923m.

It was burned by the costs of closing a site in Lincolnshire and subsequent restructuring.

In the UK, turnover was flat, but sales in its international arm increased 17pc. Shares rose 8pc, or 8.6p, to 116p.