Woodford fund stays closed for 28 more days

NEIL Woodford’s flagship fund is expected to remain closed for at least another 28 days – keeping savers locked out of nest eggs.

The troubled finance manager’s £3. billion Equity Income Fund was suspended 56 days ago. Its status is reviewed every 28 days.

Withdrawals were blocked in June because Mr Woodford ran out of ready cash to pay investors who were rushing to take money out.

In the longer term, the fund is widely expected to remain closed until the end of this year – or possibly longer.

However, Mr Woodford, 59, and his Oxford-based business Woodford Investment Management have so far refused to stop charging customers.

They are making £65,000 a day in fees – totalling more than £3.6million since the fund was shut to all buying, selling and transfers. If Equity Income remains closed until December, Mr Woodford could rake in £12million in fees.

A company spokesman said the fees ‘cover a wide range of costs’. The finance chief has sold hundreds of millions of pounds of assets in the last two months, including shares in media firm Time Out and used car seller BCA Marketplace.