Neil Woodford, one of Britain’s most celebrated fund managers, has revealed that drugmaker AstraZeneca is the largest holding in his newly launched Equity Income fund, reports Chris Newlands.
Mr Woodford, who publicly opposed Pfizer’s recent bid for AstraZeneca, said the pharmaceutical company makes up 8.3 per cent of his new fund. GlaxoSmithKline forms 7.1 per cent and British American Tobacco 6.2 per cent, FastFT reports.
He said: “I have been very careful in building a portfolio that avoids sectors I believe are vulnerable to a faltering global economy. There is significant emphasis in my new fund on the tobacco and pharmaceutical sectors. These two sectors are resilient to falling demand, have strong balance sheets and attractive valuations.”
The Equity Income fund is the first he has launched via his new venture Woodford Investment Management. Mr Woodford left Invesco Perpetual in April. The new fund garnered £1.6bn during the offer period, with an additional mandate from wealth management group St James’s Place taking the total above £5bn.
You can read more about Mr Woodford’s initial allocations here.
