Industrial Heat/Eddie Stobart: Woodford double blow

The woes of Neil Woodford and his long-suffering investors seem to know no end, said Daniel Grote on Citywire. In a new double blow, the “embattled” former star fund manager has been hit by a 40% write-down in the value of Industrial Heat – an unquoted nuclear-energy start-up and one of his most “controversial” investments. Separately, shares in another Woodford company, Aim-listed Eddie Stobart Logistics, have been suspended because it failed to publish its half-year accounts on time, after admitting it had overstated 2018 profits. The CEO, Alex Laffey, has now walked. The setbacks whacked both of Woodford’s already troubled vehicles – the “frozen” £3.2bn Woodford Equity Income Fund and his listed Patient Capital Trust. The frozen fund has lost some 11% in value since investor withdrawals were blocked in early June, following hefty losses. Shares in the listed trust, where Industrial Heat was the top holding, hit a new low last week. “Most scientists reckon” Industrial Heat’s speciality, “cold fusion” energy, is just a “pipe dream”, like “converting base metal into gold”, said Patrick Hosking in The Times – Woodford thought otherwise. “Valuing illiquid companies with unproven technologies is difficult”, and others were also “credulous” – not least Link Fund Solutions, the administrator charged with overseeing the Woodford funds’ investments. But it’s Woodford himself who will take the biggest hit. “His reputation can hardly sink lower.”