Neil Woodford has offered to enter into talks to buy the venture capital investments he made in his years at Invesco Perpetual from his old employer.
Buying up unquoted investments from his former Invesco Income and High Income funds could be a way to get his new CF Woodford Equity Income fund fully invested more quickly.
The manager made roughly 30 of the unconventional investments on his former funds, often offering funding to university research spin-outs in areas such as life sciences. The bets included medical firm Lamellar Biomedical, materials sciences venture Xyleco and even platform group A J Bell.
“You can’t buy them when you want to and have to wait until the opportunity comes to find these types of businesses,” he told Investment Adviser.
“It may well be a possibility to come to an agreement with my previous employer to buy stocks they might want to sell.”
Mr Woodford last week revealed he is looking to establish the same investment process he ran at Invesco on his new fund, which is set to start trading on June 19.
In January, Mark Barnett, who has taken over Mr Woodford’s former funds, told Investment Adviser that he is planning to offload the unquoted shares – a process he fears could take “two or three years”.
But Mr Woodford said it was currently “too early” to approach Invesco with proposed prices. The offer period for his new fund, which will determine how much money overall will be in the initial portfolio, is set to take place from June 2 to June 19.
The manager has made no secret of his love of unquoted stocks, viewing them as an opportunity to make bargain, long-term investments in firms that struggle to find funding.
According to the Invesco Perpetual Income fund’s 2013 annual report, unapproved/unlisted securities for the year to March 31 2013 amounted to 5.5 per cent of the net asset value of the fund.
