Investors trapped in the suspended Woodford Equity Income fund will receive another payment on March 25 as more of the assets have been sold.
The fund was suspended in June 2019 following a period of poor performance and outflows running at £9m per working day.
In October, Woodford Investment Management was removed as manager of the fund.
In a letter sent to clients in the fund today (March 12) the fund's authorised corporate director Link stated that it estimates it will have raised £141.7m to distribute to clients at the end of March.
Link had appointed BlackRock to sell the liquid part of the portfolio and US investment bank PJT Park Hill to sell the less liquid assets.
The sale of the liquid part of the portfolio was largely completed in January, when clients stuck in the fund received a payment of between 46.3p and 58.9p per share, depending on who was involved in the fund’s distribution and whether the investor was in accumulation or receiving an income on their investment.
The new payment will bring the total to have been returned to clients since the end of October to £2.3bn.
Clients of the fund have also received income payments, that is payments from the dividends paid by the companies in which the fund is invested.
An income payment for the year to the end of December 2019 was paid on February 29, while on March 17 another income payment, covering the dividends received up to January 17 was paid.
FTAdviser previously reported that the fund’s former manager, Neil Woodford, has been discussing with a group of investors potentially buying some of the unquoted or illiquid assets.
There are a total of 15 companies in the portfolio of assets that Mr Woodford has examined.
david.thorpe@ft.com
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