Neil Woodford’s £800m Patient Capital Investment Trust will be ejected from the FTSE250 index of UK mid cap shares on June 18 following a period of torrid share price performance, it has been confirmed this morning (31 May).
As FTAdviser previously reported had been forecast, Mr Woodford’s trust will exit the index on 18 June
Mr Woodford’s investment trust, which invests primarily in early stage quoted and unquoted companies, has lost 20 per cent over the past year to 30 May, compared with a gain of 8 per cent for the average trust in the AIC UK All Companies sector in the same time period.
The trust invests very differently to most of the other, more conventional funds in that sector. A fairer measure might be the share price, which has fallen from 93p to 74p over the past year.
By dropping out of the FTSE 250 the trust will have to be sold by funds which track that index.
Mr Woodford has constantly defended the investments in the trust, saying their underlying progress is not being reflected in the share price performance of the trust.
But Philip Milton, who runs the advice firm Philip Milton and Co in Devon, said the discount to net asset value at which Patient Capital shares trade is now wide enough to make him consider investing.
David.Thorpe@ft.com
