Link has today published an update for investors in the former Woodford Equity Income Fund, including its annual accounts for the period ended 31 March 2020 - https://equityincome.linkfundsolutions.co.uk/media/3iqko4yp/investor-letter-30-09-2020-final.pdf
Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, comments:
“The latest update from Link does little to ease the pain for embattled investors stuck in the Woodford Equity Income fund with the news that the winding up of the fund could still be happening in another 12 months, meaning that over 2 years would have passed since the fund originally suspended. This is of course dependent on Link being able to offload the remaining £288m that they have confirmed is left in the fund which may be challenging given market conditions are being severely impacted by coronavirus.
“Investors have also learned that they have had to shell out c£15.5m in fees to BlackRock, Park Hill and lawyer Debevoise & Plimpton to facilitate the selling down of the assets that will surely stick in the throat of all investors who have been waiting patiently to get some of their money back. While these fees would have been due regardless of who was selling the assets, seeing such sums will make for painful reading for investors. The one element of positive news is that the sale of some assets to Acacia is proceeding with completion hopefully done by the end of November. Link are then hoping to make a fourth distribution to investors soon after this time.”