Woodford Concerns

fun4everyone

elona wrote: »

This may be a daft question but is the taint likely to affect the perception of Invesco? I do know he is no longer anything to do with them.

There is some slight contagion imo. His old funds at Invesco are now run by Mark Barnett who is a bit of a Woodford disciple. He bought a lot of the same stuff Woodford did over the last few years. There are some similar stocks in the funds although nothing like the same level of non liquid stuff. The invesco funds have also suffered serious underperformance recently and the forced selling of some of WEIF's holdings will negatively impact on the Invesco funds that have similar stuff.

sairy.gamp

Just a piece on 'The world at one' on BBC Radio 4. Fund now closed. HL were interviewed.
Listen again on the Beeb website.

fun4everyone

BBC News running items and discussion on this. R2 and R4 having people on who have their entire pensions in WEIF. Daily Mail all over it. RIP Woody.

Reaper

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I am a buyer at 66.5p which seems OK against yesterday's closing NAV of 89.07p.

You did well to get it at that price, almost its lowest point. As it's heading slowly upwards I'll hold off buying for now but will keep an eye on it.

talexuser

A lot of outrage that funds do not go up all the time? This is an example of the punt you take with an active manager. Even a tracker will not protect you in the next downturn. Maybe a chance to review risk tolerance?

talexuser

fun4everyone wrote: »

people on who have their entire pensions in WEIF.

Of course that's his fault :rotfl: Nevertheless he is now reputation toast.

bowlhead99

aroominyork wrote: »

A question for the better informed on here: the largest holding is a REIT. Could it stop redemptions and if so how would that affect this Woodford OEIC?

REITs generally do not offer redemptions, so Woodford will not be applying to 'redeem' his holdings in it. It is a closed-ended investment vehicle not an open-ended one, so if an investor wants to exit his holdings he will sell them on the stock market or private sale.

In Woodford's case, as of a couple of weeks ago he owned about 22% of the issued shares of the REIT (about 300 million shares at around £2 each) so if he wants to sell down half (for example) of his stake he will be coming to some arrangement with a strategic buyer, rather than just placing an order with his stockbroker to sell 150 million shares at whatever the market will pay.

New River REIT is down about 5% today. I am a small buyer at £1.95 (just 1250 shares, not 150 million, so Woodford will probably need a few more of us). I would buy more if it gets considerably cheaper as it is not a bad portfolio and epra NAV at the end of last quarter was about 260p.

JohnRo

talexuser wrote: »

A lot of outrage that funds do not go up all the time? This is an example of the punt you take with an active manager. Even a tracker will not protect you in the next downturn. Maybe a chance to review risk tolerance?

You're right but the issue here is far more complex, much of the outrage is about his behaviour, within the structure of his business, his external relationships and the management of the funds themselves over the last few months; as his penchant for and evident over exposure to illiquid assets seems to have got the better of him.

That's seen him having to resort to some quite extreme measures that subsequently came unstuck and have now come to haunt him and his suffering investors as the clamour for redemptions have overwhelmed the fund.

bowlhead99

Reaper wrote: »

You did well to get it at that price, almost its lowest point. As it's heading slowly upwards I'll hold off buying for now but will keep an eye on it.

There was some trading at 63p ish maybe about 8.15-8.20 and I wondered if it would go lower... but by the time I got around to going for it, it had already gone back up 5% or so. You never catch the bottom! It's currently over 70p now.

bostonerimus

If people own Woodford funds as part of a diversified portfolio the damage should not be catastrophic. It is never a good idea to hold a large percentage of your money in a single fund when it is actively managed and focused. This applies equally for Fundsmith as well as Woodford funds irrespective of their recent performances..

The retail investor should be investing more with risk in mind rather than potential returns.