Neil Woodford in talks with investors as he plots comeback
Neil Woodford and a number of colleagues from Woodford Investment Management (WIM) are in talks with investors about snapping up a number of the fallen fund manager’s old investments.
Woodford has held talks with institutional and wealth managers in recent weeks about creating a vehicle to buy back some of the unquoted WIM stakes, according to Sky News.
Some of the companies in question include BenevolentAI, Rutherford Health and Immunocore, the report says.
Woodford was considering an offer for stakes in his former fund, the Woodford Equity Income Fund, sources told Sky, at a cost of around £500m.
The fund manager, whose empire imploded last year, has also floated the possibility of creating a new fund to manage dozens of new holdings in London-listed companies.
Discussions had been prompted by “inbound interest” in canvassing Woodford’s views and involvement in a new vehicle, the report adds.
The possibility of a return to fund management comes amid global stock market turmoil in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
It is currently unclear what prospects there were for Woodford to resurrect his career.
It is understood that prospective backers would only establish a fund focused on professional, rather than retail, investors.
Woodford’s firm had held talks with advisers about buyers for the unquoted stakes before his company ran into trouble.
Woodford made his name at Invesco and at his peak managed funds with more than £15bn of investors’ money.
However, it all went wrong last year when Kent County Council withdrew a £263m investment mandate from his firm.
Woodford then prevented investors selling holdings in his £3.7bn WIEF before he was stripped of the responsibility of running the funds which carried his name.
Woodford has declined to comment.