Investors trapped in Neil Woodford’s former flagship fund will share a £143m payment this week.
In a letter to investors, published on Friday (March 20), the fund’s administrators Link Fund Solutions said it had raised £143.2m in its second sell-off of the portfolio’s assets and that investors would be paid on or around March 25.
They will receive between 3.1p and 3.9p 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 share class receiving the highest return is the Z share class, which represents Hargreaves Lansdown clients.
Hargreaves investors in accumulation and receiving income will get 3.97p and 3.26p per share respectively.
Hargreaves had negotiated a lower management fee with Mr Woodford, meaning less of its clients' cash went to the fund house and more will be returned to the consumer.
All other platforms hold the C share class. Today’s letter shows those investors will receive 3.95p per share, if in accumulation, and 3.25p per share if receiving income.
Link warned investors using a platform may receive their payment a few days later than March 25 due to the time it could take the platform to process their payment.
The new payment will bring the total to have been returned to clients since the end of October to £2.3bn. About £700m is estimated to still be trapped in the fund.
The sale of the liquid part of the portfolio was largely completed in January, when £2.1bn was returned to investors - which accounted for around 70 per cent of the portfolio.
The remaining assets — the most illiquid holdings — are still in the process of being sold by PJT Park Hill so investors remain in the dark regarding the full value of their return.
Investors have been unable to withdraw their cash from the fund since it was suspended on June 3 last year. It had been struggling with a sustained period of outflows and was unable to meet the requested redemptions.
On October 15, Mr Woodford was fired from the fund before walking away from his two remaining investment vehicles. By the end of the day, he had announced his investment firm Woodford Investment Management would close.
Since the fund was suspended on June 3 it has lost 25 per cent.
FTAdviser previously reported that Mr Woodford has been in talks with a group of investors about buying some of the fund's unquoted or illiquid assets.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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