Axe Woodford now!

Pressure mounting on board of Patient Capital to get rid of embattled manager

NeIL woodford is facing fresh calls to be axed from the investment trust that bears his name.

the 59-year- old manages the woodford Patient Capital trust which has suffered a halving of its share price since early this year.

trust bosses, including chairman Susan Searle, are under pressure to replace woodford as his investment empire is engulfed in crisis.

they will be quizzed on their plans when Patient Capital publishes its half-year results on monday – with some observers calling for woodford’s head.

‘I would hope they would,’ said James Carthew, head of investment company research at marten & Co.

He added: ‘the woodford brand is tainted and his association with the trust is one of the things depressing its share price.’

Patient Capital shares closed up 0.2pc, or 0.1p, yesterday at 44p, well below the 2019 peak of 90p and overall peak of nearly 120p.

Patient Capital is separate from woodford’s flagship equity Income fund, which has been gated since June 3, meaning savers cannot withdraw their cash.

Since denying investors access to their nest eggs, woodford has collected nearly £7.7m from them in fees, despite criticism from regulators. the crisis at equity Income has spread to Patient Capital amid widespread fears among investors that woodford has lost his golden touch.

when Patient Capital was set up in april 2015, it raised £800m, making it the Uk’s largest-ever investment trust launch.

analysts say woodford needs to be replaced as the manager of the trust. It trades at a discount of around 35pc to its net asset value – a measure of the value of the companies it has investments in. this indicates investors are uncertain about its longterm prospects.

analysts at Numis said replacing woodford would be a ‘catalyst for a turnaround in sentiment’.

the mail first revealed woodford could be fired from Patient Capital in June. In July, Patient Capital said that while it was confident about the day-to- day management of the trust, its board said it would ‘engage with a broader range of third-party managers in order to undertake a full assessment of all potential management options, which may or may not lead to a change in the company’s management arrangements’.

Iain Scouller, analyst at financial firm Stifel, said that while woodford may survive monday, his removal at some point was ‘reasonably likely given the situation that we’ve seen over the last few months’.

analysts at JP morgan Cazenove said: ‘It looks increasingly likely that the company that bears woodford’s name will move to another manager.’