Mitchell Fraser-Jones
3 May 2019
April Roundup
“Slower growth is a major challenge for global markets. This has been felt most acutely in Europe, emerging economies and in China and there is evidence that this slowing will continue through 2019. This, in turn, will raise earnings risk against a backdrop of excessive valuation in markets – a potentially dangerous combination. A further headwind as we approach the summer is a significant deterioration in global US dollar liquidity, which may be the catalyst for a much less benign market environment than that which we have witnessed in the first four months of the year. The comfortable consensus view that prevails in equity markets globally is about to be challenged.”
— Neil Woodford
Global equity markets continued to move higher in April, with similar preferences evident to those that have prevailed for much of the last three years. Accordingly, the UK market’s leadership again came principally from Asian-exposed businesses. We continue to see the widespread enthusiasm for the large, global-facing businesses that dominate the UK stock market as fundamentally flawed and increasingly dangerous from the perspective of valuation risk.
The loss of momentum in global economic growth has been widespread and is perhaps best epitomised by what’s happening in China and its local trading partners in Asia. China’s economic problems are well known, and a meaningful slowdown in growth has been evident over the last 18 months. Policy has been loosened slightly in response, and this has been enough to prompt a rapid stock market recovery in China, albeit one that remains highly speculative. Although official economic data seems to have stabilised in recent months, other, less malleable data points provide a better indication of what is really happening. These include domestic car sales, as an indicator of domestic demand, and industrial production and export data in other Asian economies that are dependent on Chinese growth. Here, the numbers remain troubling and it is increasingly difficult to reconcile the behaviour of equity markets with the economic evidence that we continue to see.
Strategy update
In recent months there has been considerable commentary about the shape of the portfolios Neil manages, in particular, the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund. In light of this, Neil explains why the fund is positioned as it is today and what this means for investors in the months ahead.
Month in numbers
Source: Bloomberg, Office for National Statistics, Woodford
0.5%
German GDP growth forecast for 2019, down from 2.1% a year ago
-6.7%
Latest change in China car sales (year-on-year)
$100.8m
Amount raised by Autolus for to support a new clinical trial in AUTO1, a potential treatment for adult acute lymphotic leukaemia
-9.9%
Latest change in Taiwan industrial production (year-on-year)
£80m
Potential value of ReNeuron’s partnership with China-based Fosun Pharma
2.6%
Halifax house price index increased by a higher-than-expected amount in Q1 2019
1.1%
UK retail sales rise in March, vs expectations of a -0.3% decline
179,000
Increase in UK employment in the three months to February 2019, to a record high level
3.2%
US GDP growth for Q1 2019, much better-than-expected
Woodford Patient Capital Trust: April’s milestones
Several of the portfolio companies held in Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc (WPCT) reached significant milestones during April. They included Inivata’s valuation uplift and Benevolent AI’s collaboration with AstraZeneca.
Inivata
Following a positive reimbursement decision in the US for Inivata’s maiden non-invasive blood cancer test and a successful $52.6m fund raising in March, the company’s valuation has this week been revised upwards by Link Fund Solutions Limited, WPCT’s appointed Alternative Investment Fund Manager (AIFM). The value of Inivata has increased by 58% and is valued at £31.2m.
Inivata is a clinical cancer genomics company commercialising its initial blood biopsy test that helps clinicians make more informed treatment decisions for patients with lung cancer based on their blood samples. Its initial test in the US is called InVisionFirst®-Lung and recent data demonstrated that it reveals the same quality of information as tissue-based cancer profiling in a less invasive way. As at the end of March 2019, it represented a 1.91% position in the WPCT portfolio.
Benevolent AI
Benevolent AI announced a partnership with AstraZeneca to identify new targets in two therapeutic areas of huge unmet need, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The collaboration comes with an undisclosed upfront payment, development milestone payments and tiered royalties on future revenues.
Mene Pangalos, on the executive management team at AstraZenca, said: “By combining AstraZeneca’s disease area expertise and large, diverse datasets with BenevolentAI’s leading AI and machine learning capabilities, we can unlock the potential of this wealth of data to improve our understanding of complex disease biology and identify new targets that could treat debilitating diseases.”
As at the end of March 2019, Benevolent AI represented an 8.33% position in the WPCT portfolio.
ReNeuron
On 9 April, ReNeuron announced it had signed an exclusive agreement with Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma to fully fund the development, manufacture and commercialisation of its CTX and hRPC cell therapy programmes in China.
ReNeuron is also developing a therapy (known as hRPC) for blindness-causing disease retinitis pigmentosa. Over the past few weeks, the company has reported an ongoing and clinically meaningful improvement in all patients of the first group of phase II patients receiving the treatment. As at the end of March 2019, it represented a 0.48% position in the WPCT portfolio.
Idex Biometrics
Idex Biometrics entered into an agreement with a major global information and technology company that provides hardware, analytical software, data services, and news to the world’s financial companies. The agreement includes a multi-million dollar commitment for Idex’s SmartFinger® IDX 3200 dual-interface sensors.
The Norwegian technology company was founded in 1996 to pioneer miniaturised fingerprint sensors. The company aims to provide consumers with a secure and user-friendly use of personal identification by developing and commercialising fingerprint imaging, recognition and authentication technology. Last month, Idex also announced that along with China smart card provider, Chutian Dragon, which it has been collaborating with since 2018, it will be working alongside point of sales terminal provider PAX to accelerate biometric smart card adoption in Asia. As at 31 March 2019, it represents a 1.33% position in the WPCT portfolio.
Evofem
Evofem has entered into a securities purchase agreement to raise up to $80 million through a private placement of common stock from new and existing investors, including a strategic investment from NASDAQ-listed PDL BioPharma (PDL). The financing, at a premium to the current share price, enables Evofem to maximise the opportunity for its contraceptive gel Amphora, which if approved, will be the first hormone-free, woman-controlled birth control method. As at the end of March 2019, it represents a 0.37% position in the WPCT portfolio.
Autolus
Autolus is at the forefront of a revolutionary immuno-oncology treatment, dubbed the ‘living medicine’, that is offering new hope to patients suffering from blood-related cancers such as lymphoma and myeloma. In April, the company raised $100.8m that will propel the company to a position of strength. It will be able to resource late stage clinical activities for its leukaemia asset Auto1 (which recently reported impressive data in both adult and paediatric patients) and build out a commercially viable manufacturing base. As at the end of March 2019, it represents a 9.33% position in the WPCT portfolio.
Reaction Engines
The company is developing SABRE with the support of BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Boeing. The Sabre air-breathing rocket engine is designed to drive space planes to orbit and take airliners around the world in just a few hours and its propulsion system technology has passed a key milestone in April.
The company’s pre-cooler heat exchanger passed all test objectives in the first phase of high-temperature testing designed to directly replicate supersonic flight conditions. It demonstrated the ability to handle the simulated conditions of flying at more than three times the speed of sound. As at the end of March 2019, it represented a 0.48% position in WPCT.
Key Company Events
Conclusion
Our strategy remains focused on avoiding the considerable risks that have built up in equity markets over the last decade of QE-fuelled exuberance and capturing the opportunity that exists in the few parts of the market that have been left behind. For the funds, this results in portfolios that have a strong but selective bias towards profoundly undervalued companies that are exposed to the UK economy.
Elsewhere, the Woodford Equity Income Fund and Woodford Patient Capital Trust portfolios continue to be positioned to capture an exciting long-term opportunity across a range of earlier-stage businesses exposed to the themes of healthcare innovation and disruptive technology more broadly.
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Hi Mitch, hope you had a good holiday. Have attached a recently released video from Linda Liau, things are getting close and I can’t see how DCVax L won’t be approved.
https://youtu.be/bZiwsLblLmk
I should have mentioned this relates to Northwest Biotherapeutics which will be Neil’s turnaround story I reckon!!
Thanks Mike.
Having a near 10% holding in Autolus in the Investment Trust seems rather high for a company yet to prove itself. Bearing in mind there are no other serious investors to this magnitude where is the line drawn between this becoming a serious investment that will come good over Time or become a speculative failure. With a near 10% holding there is no hiding place!
Hi Steven,
Please take a look at our investment case summary page for Autolus:
https://woodfordfunds.com/funds/holdings/autolus/
You will read from this page that one of the key reasons Autolus has become such a large position within the portfolio is that the IPO last year took place at a materially higher valuation than the trust’s original investment. You can also read why we believe Autolus has the potential to become a $12bn+ company, compared to a current market capitalisation of just over $1bn.
Kind regards
Mitch
Purple bricks , in or out.
In the week since Neil’s last reassuring words, the equity fund has dipped a further 3.5%. When does Neil expect the nightmare to end?
Now make that 4.5%
Now make that a dip of 8.5% in four weeks,
Me and my wife have been investing with Woodford from the start. We hold both the Focus and Equity Income Fund. Unfortunately we both feel that these investments have been a total train wreck. We follow the news and the funds very closely and neither of us can see a light at the end of the tunnel. The only news is always bad, with the latest of another big investor possibly pulling its investment in June. There is always talk of things turning around for Woodford but the numbers have told a completely different story. If Woodford is waiting for Brexit then I think you have a long wait, I can’t see them getting cross party talks through Government, I can only see more delays or a leave without a deal, which I understand Neil would not be too keen on. We don’t want to pull our money out but we are running out of reasons to stay. If the investor leaves in June we have decided to follow. We hope that you can change our minds in the mean time and we know if anyone can it’s Neil.
Thanks
David
Hi John and David,
We understand your frustration at performance and appreciate your support and patience to this point. As Neil explained in his update (and as we explore in greater detail in the fund’s performance explanation page, which you can find here: https://woodfordfunds.com/funds/weif/performance/), the well-documented stock specific problems at the likes of Provident Financial and Capita account for a part of the fund’s underperformance, but there has also been a considerable impact from a late-stage, momentum-driven stock market, which has increasingly defied fundamentals.
If you accept this, it follows that a significant part of the fund’s disappointing performance represents a temporary loss of capital. A reversal of this is, in our view, ultimately inevitable, but in direct answer to your question John, impossible to time with any precision.
We aren’t simply waiting for Brexit resolution, but accept that it would probably represent a catalyst for a reappraisal of the UK opportunity set from domestic and global investors. A no-deal Brexit is not something to fear, from our long-term perspective, but it is a very unlikely outcome now.
I hope this helps. Ultimately, we understand that investors will make their own individual decisions with respect to their Woodford investments, and acknowledge that nobody has infinite patience. We will, of course, respect whatever decision you arrive at and will do what we can to make sure that decision is well-informed. Neil will continue to manage the funds with a disciplined, fundamentally-based, long-term view, in a broader market environment which now holds considerable risk.
Kind regards
Mitch
Hi Mitch
Thank you for the useful words as always.
I read the information on the fund’s performance explanation page.
How do you know when we are in the late stages of a momentum-driven market and not in the middle or the early stages?
KInd regards
Lee
Hi Lee,
That’s a good question, it isn’t signposted exactly, but the way the market behaves gives some pretty good clues. Bear in mind also that, certainly as far as the US stock market is concerned, this is the longest bull market in financial market history – and has been since August 2018.
Kind regards
Mitch
Either there are fewer and fewer comments to this ‘conversation’ or the compliance dept has effectively had to shut the dialogue down. I finally totally exited a couple of weeks ago before the last big fall that coincided with Purple Bricks imploding. The last straw was the swap with the WPCT which cost equity income investors around 15%. When the fund manager is shuffling investments from pocket to pocket trying to stay the right side of the Regulations you don’t need to wait for Kent County Council to make their minds up.
Jerry,
We don’t filter out many comments to be honest, but some do not meet the criteria clearly laid out here: https://woodfordfunds.com/social-media-guidelines/
Thank you for your support to this point.
Kind regards
Mitch
On a three year time period, the Equity Income fund is now 40% lower than the All Companies average — that’s never going to made up, is it? Even in the event of a post-Brexit rebound, the fund is likely to remain way below this average for years. Very disappointed. I’ve been a big supporter of Neil for over a decade, but I just can’t see how he can believe that this will turn around in his favour.
Hi Gary,
You are correct, the numbers don’t look good and we share your disappointment. We remain focused on the long-term opportunity from here, and would encourage you to do the same, particularly in a broader market environment that now carries substantial risk.
We appreciate your long-term support.
Kind regards
Mitch
I hear you, and I probably will hold. However, the long-term case has been made now for a very long time — and with no positive results. One example of what concerns me is how Neil’s long-term strategy, say, 10 years ago included healthcare in the form of Azn and Gsk — and yet now these are gone (or hugely diluted). But Neil said that he considered them essential stock to own in the context of an ageing population etc — something which hints at holding them well in the 2020s, perhaps. All this chopping and changing makes me wonder whether he’s now improvising according to macro movements he hasn’t called correctly? Of course nobody can anticipate global developments, particularly in this Brexit climate, but all the same, other investors (eg, Terry Smith) have done far better. As I say, I will hold, because I’m seeing a few signs of strain in Europe and China (as Neil suggests), but I also have to say that I’m on the verge of cutting my losses. I suspect many feel this way.
Thanks Gary. A major part of Neil’s recent update was aimed at reiterating that his disciplined valuation-oriented investment approach has been consistently deployed throughout his career. All investment decisions should be seen in this context, including recent disposals of stocks such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. They are the product of an evolving market opportunity set and reflect his long-term view of macroeconomic and stock specific fundamentals.
Kind regards
Mitch
Rather painful to hold the Income Focus units. I’m hanging on but feel IMB was sold at a loss. Which is not a good investment by Mr Woodford…
Figures released in the media in early April showed Equity Income fund redemptions had increased again in March, this time to £165m. Previous comments here have requested better reporting of redemptions, but the updates haven’t changed so far.
Some reports attributed this increase in March to the recent equity asset swap with the Patient Capital Trust.
The management company presented the equity swap as its response to investors feedback, and underplayed the influence of regulatory pressure on the level of unlisted holdings.
Neil’s comment in March on the sustainability of the fund in the event redemptions continue was dismissed by the management company as flippant.
To me it seemed an honest acknowledgement of the unavoidable consequences of continued future redemptions at this level or higher.
I would like to ask:
i) What do you see as the minimum fund size needed to sustain the EI fund, before it becomes unviable?
ii) To what extent do you believe that transparency and marketing can both be company values during times of poor performance?
Hi Simon,
The LF Woodford Equity Income Fund represents less than half of our assets under management and other mandates have very different redemption profiles. Redemptions for the equity income fund fell by 25% in April based on the March figures that were reported and the fund remains of a significant size.
It is worth clarifying what we stated in our press release and blog article at the time of the asset swap – that having listened to client feedback, we believe that unquoted exposure should be via a collective fund rather than individual unquoted stocks because it made sense “both operationally and from an investor view”.
Transparency is a company value of ours but marketing it isn’t. We believe that investors have the right to know where their money is invested and why, irrespective of how the fund or funds are performing – hence our full portfolio disclosure and timely updates.
Kind regards
Mitch
Ratings agency Morningstar said it was downgrading Mr Woodford’s flagship equity income fund to neutral, its second lowest rating, amid concerns about his “relentless willingness to push the portfolio to its liquidity limit”.
Now what Michael all the pointers are to bail out. It’s ok being a contrarian investor but at what stage does it come self denial . I’m still in Michael but very worried.
I too have read the same Morningstar downgrade today. I have held this fund for 3 years and therefore I am obviously down on my investment. The phrase ” liquidity limit” makes me very nervous.
I have always been a big fan of Mr Woodford , through the tobacco / BAT years.
I agree with Gary Fry above, at what point do we accept the WEIF is unlikely to turn around in 2 to 3 years. To beat other investment funds or trusts the performance is going to have to be amazing while everything else stands still.
Reluctantly I have sold out all of my income units in this fund as I believe the turn around will not happen. I retain a tranche of accumulation units, with an eye on a stop loss at 100p.
Sorry Mitch
No problem Dave. This isn’t self-denial. Something Neil said a while back springs to mind to demonstrate that: “The temptation is to take the easy option, to hide in the strategy that everybody else is pursuing. And then all the attention, and all the fuss, and all the criticism would go away. But as I’ve said, that would be a betrayal of my investment principles. I believe it would be entirely the wrong thing to do in terms of the long-term interests of our investors.”
David, as I wrote in reply to Gary’s comment, we remain focused on the long-term opportunity from here, and would encourage you to do the same, particularly in a broader market environment that now carries substantial risk.
Kind regards
Mitch
Would you please share your thoughts on imperial brands?
Why is it that both funds are reducing the exposure to this stock?
It’s at an all time low and u guys are selling them.
Hi Mr Aloha,
The investment case summary page provides a fair and up-to-date reflection of our current thoughts towards Imperial Brands.
https://woodfordfunds.com/funds/holdings/imperial-brands/
Kind regards
Mitch
Mitch
I have been a supporter of the equity income fund since its launch. I have made a number of highly supportive comments on this site. I am heavily invested. I am also now very worried. The fund is close to its launch price some 5 years into its lifetime. Redemptions continue apace. Kent county council will be a big blow. There is no end in sight to the Brexit confusion. Purple bricks is turning into yet another bad stock pick. I have followed Neil for many years. Can you provide me with any crumbs of comfort in these troubled times?
Hi Jeremy,
We genuinely appreciate your support and regular helpful comments. Thank you.
Every individual stock page that you can find on this website, should provide you with at least one crumb of comfort. We highlight why we are invested in these companies and why we believe they are worth considerably more than their current price – sometimes many multiples of their current price, even among some of the major portfolio holdings.
Additionally, our regular updates and answers to comments such as this one, could also hopefully be seen as individual crumbs of comfort. In an intermediated industry, this website is our primary tool for communicating with end investors like yourself, and we always aim to give you a balanced, honest and considered appraisal of what’s going on.
We do not have the regulatory permissions to offer investment advice, so there is only so far we can go in providing the reassurance you have sought. Our aim for this website and the open line of communication that if offers, is that we provide investors with a source of reliable information upon which they can make informed decisions.
We believe, emphatically, that we have an appropriate long-term strategy in place for the funds, in the context of a challenging economic environment and a broader equity market backdrop which now holds considerable risk. The strategy hasn’t worked for a prolonged period of time and we completely understand your anxiety and frustration. But, as Neil explained in his update earlier this month, it is critical that he maintains his disciplined valuation-based investment approach. To quote Neil directly from that article, “I know the valuation disciplines deployed in everything I do professionally, and which guide the construction of the portfolios, will deliver the returns investors expect over the medium and long term.”
I hope that the collective crumbs of comfort I’ve been able to offer you, are sufficient for you to arrive at a decision which is appropriate for you and your circumstances.
Kind regards
Mitch
A point I have made consistently here is the failure of the WIM strategy to factor in the sheer incompetence of the current breed of English politicians. I use “English” deliberately because they are even managing to makes the likes of Nicola Sturgeon and Arlene Foster look competent. I simply cannot believe that the likes of Boris Johnston or Dominic Raab could be the next PM of this country. WIM’s strategy is underpinned by a belief that, no matter what the brexit outcome, the British economy can ride out the storm and come back stronger. The problem is that our political incompetents are delivering exactly what the strategy does not countenance – no outcome at all! The beneficiaries of this are those funds with a more international focus not those with a UK focus and this seems likely to last for some time to come. As the WIM funds’ value plummet with the £, I think it may be time to ditch hubris and rethink the strategy for the sake of survival. A very difficult and sad time for WIM and the whole country. If the UK survives this in tact, it will be a minor miracle. I leave judgement on the survival of WIM to others.
Hi Ray,
As always, you have made an interesting and well-articulated observation. However, there are a couple of things I would like to clarify in response.
Firstly, the strategy is re-thought every day and has been throughout this prolonged period of disappointing performance. Every time, we have arrived back at the same conclusions. In fact, over time, our conviction in those conclusions has, through repeated challenge and retesting of the hypothesis, been considerably fortified. To change the strategy now would be a betrayal of the disciplined investment principles upon which this business has been built.
Secondly, the main thing underpinning the investment strategy is that disciplined investment approach and we can’t emphasise enough how important that is. Brexit is a political issue, it isn’t really an economic issue. You could argue that the UK economy would have been even stronger if it hadn’t been for the Brexit paralysis in Parliament but, generally speaking the UK economy and the companies, consumers and other moving parts within it, have just been getting on with things. The stock market has become completely preoccupied with the Brexit debate and overlooked much of the economic positives that we have been seeing and talking about on this website. We have to remember that in the long run, valuation is all that matters. The companies that grow their earnings the fastest from a low valuation base will be the best performing stocks over next ten years. For the time being, this is apparently irrelevant because everyone has become obsessed with what’s going to happen tomorrow – not what’s going to happen over the next five-to-ten years. This cannot last indefinitely.
Thirdly, those funds with an international focus have clearly been the beneficiaries of all of this. Ours is a lonely furrow but that makes the UK dollar-earners a very crowded trade and we know how they end…
Kind regards
Mitch
Mitch – Thank you for your considered response. As always, walking the fine line between principles and dogma is a difficult balancing act and hindsight is a wonderful thing when ruing lost opportunities.
I am now 23.6% down on my capital invested in Income Focus, something has gone drastically wrong with the investment strategy of this fund and I am fast losing confidence in Woodford.
Hi Andy,
Thank you for your comment and for your support. We would suggest that, if you haven’t already done so, you have a look at our performance explanation page for the Woodford Income Focus Fund:
https://woodfordfunds.com/funds/wiff/performance/
It’s aim is to help you understand what’s been driving the performance of the fund. We do not believe anything has gone drastically wrong with the investment strategy. Clearly, it hasn’t been working the way we would have liked and we can appreciate your concern. However, we are very confident that we have an appropriate long-term strategy in place, in the context of a challenging economic environment and a broader equity market backdrop which now holds considerable risk.
Kind regards
Mitch
I think Gary Fry has hit the nail on the head – it’s difficult to see how the funds will be able to recoup their very poor performance for many years, if at all. Meanwhile, investors continue to lose money. It’s all very well repeating the mantra that Neil’s investment philosophy will come good in the end, but the market is what the market is and surely the job of a fund manager is to navigate market conditions and seek to maximise returns in the environment that exists rather than the environment he thinks should exist. To do otherwise is a bit like wearing a tee shirt and shorts when it’s continually snowing because you’ve decided it should be sunny and hot! Sad times.
Hi James,
I don’t think that is an appropriate analogy. Dressing inappropriately for a snowstorm clearly involves taking an unnecessary risk. Our approach is designed to avoid such risks, albeit we have to embrace an element of risk in order to deliver the long-term returns that investors expect. We manage that risk by focusing on fundamentals and valuation, thereby doing our best to avoid over-paying for assets, and taking advantage of situations where our understanding of the true intrinsic value of a business is significantly higher than the price we are being asked to pay for that asset. That is, in effect, an effort to optimise long-term returns, rather than maximising them.
We focus on fundamentals and valuation because, in the long run, they are the key determinants of where share prices end up. There have been periods throughout financial market history where these things have temporarily stopped influencing prices in the short-term. Momentum – where market participants buy things that have risen in price and sell things that have gone down – takes over as the primary driver of share prices, temporarily. These episodes do have an end, however, when fundamentals reassert themselves, and they do not end well for those market participants that have, wittingly or not, contributed to that momentum.
So, going back to your analogy, what we are trying to do is build portfolios that are appropriate for the prevailing investment climate, not the prevailing weather. That does mean we may occasionally appear inappropriately dressed in unexpected or freakish weather conditions. But it is an understanding of the investment climate that drives Neil’s approach and strategy, and that has delivered outstanding long-term returns to investors over a very long period of time.
Kind regards
Mitch
But the funds aren’t optimising long-term returns, Mitch, they have been performing extremely poorly. And weather is short-term, so at the very least there is an argument for saying that Neil has misjudged the investment climate that has prevailed for some while. But I do accept that your role is to justify the positioning of the portfolios in the face of quite a bit of investor disquiet and kudos to Woodford for being open and transparent enough to publish critical and dissenting views and respond as appropriate. Regards. James
As a relatively new investor I have decided to jump ship and find alternative investments. I am 16% down and under normal circumstances I would hold and wait for the recovery but the amount of negative bad press not only makes me think the fund will never recover but worries me the fund will fail completely.
Unfortunately Mitch is always going to put a positive spin on things as the fund can’t risk the rate of redemptions increasing.
Hi Paul,
I think you may have misinterpreted our motives here. We believe investors have a right to know how, why and where their money is invested. In an environment in which there is a lot of media coverage about the fund, not all of which is accurate, we aim to use this website to provide you and other investors with a straight and reliable account of what’s happening, so that you can make well-informed investment decisions.
We would like to reassure you that the Woodford funds remain well-placed to capture an extremely attractive long-term opportunity. Managing a fund through a period of redemptions does, of course, involve some difficult decisions, but those decisions will always be anchored by Neil’s disciplined, valuation-based approach. That is the guiding force behind all his investment decisions, whether a fund is growing or shrinking in size. As Neil said in his update earlier this month, “In the end, valuation is what drives share prices and returns in the long run and that is why I remain resolutely focused on my strategy. I know the valuation disciplines deployed in everything I do professionally, and which guide the construction of the portfolios, will deliver the returns investors expect over the medium and long term.”
Kind regards
Mitch
Mitch, the medium term is behind us and we are in the beginnings of the long-term. WPCIT sits at 75.5p today down 25% from launch. I am a Woodford supporter and heavily invested in your funds/trust. We need improvement now.
Kelvin Boot