The shares of the Woodford Patient Capital investment trust have fallen by almost 7 per cent this morning following the announcement that the value of three more of the fund's investments have been written down.
Since the opening this morning (September 26) the shares have fallen to 43p from 46p at close yesterday.
This was after an announcement to the stock market this morning from the board of the investment trust read: “The Board of Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc (the "Company") has been notified by Link Fund Solutions Limited ("Link"), that it intends to reduce the valuations of three of the Company's holdings.
"These valuation adjustments reflect the challenging fundraising environment for these businesses which may impact their ability to or the level at which they may be able to raise capital in the near-term.
"Following the valuation adjustments, the Company's net asset value ("NAV") will reduce by approximately 3.1 pence per share.”
Link’s role is to oversee the valuation calculations of the unquoted companies held in the trust but the announcement did not specify which of the companies have had their value written down.
The announcement is the latest blow for investors in the trust, which has sharply underperformed since its launch in April 2015, and marked the latest in a series of writedowns, most recently in August when IH International had its value revised down, leading to a 6 per cent share price fall in the trust.
The trust presently trades at a discount to its net asset value of 33 per cent, having lost 54 per cent since launch, compared with a loss of 25 per cent for the average trust in the AIC Growth Capital sector in the same time period.
Woodford Investment Management has declined to comment.
The shares have fallen in value from 85p to 43p over the past year as shown in the graph below.
source: Hargreaves Lansdown /Fact Set
david.thorpe@ft.com
