Woodford Patient Capital Share Discussion Threads

[jonwig] 25/11/2019 07:28

Good news comes too late for Neil:

Oxford Nanopore is planning to raise £125 million before the end of the year in a move that could ease the stricken Woodford Equity Income fund's exit from its largest unquoted company holding.

The gene sequencing company has filed documents with Companies House announcing its intention to issue 2,155,172 shares priced at £58.

That would represent a 12% uplift to the price of its last fundraise in 2018 at £51.75 per share, and implies a valuation of £1.8 billion if it is successful in raising the cash, up from £1.5 billion last year.

Also included in the documents are provisions that would make it easier for existing shareholders to offload their stock.

[daffyjones] 24/11/2019 11:32

Specto - the announcement says Verseon bought shares held by Link that were formerly owned by Woodford.

[spectoacc] 23/11/2019 13:22

@daffy - is it Woody exiting, or the co Link appointed (that wasn't BlackRock)? Wondering if he's genuinely seen the light, or it's not him at all.

Press gone quiet on the personal side for Woodford - the horses, the houses, the marrying the secretary, the c.£50m from WIM.

[daffyjones] 23/11/2019 10:40

Woody finally exits from Verseon, the failed biotech punt that gobbled up millions for years but never put out a product or created any revenues. Verseon has bought back 35m shares from Link at 1.56p - Woody originally invested at 200p+.

Also an exit from Xeros, the company which tried to reinvent the washing machine by making them run on hugely expensive nanoparticles instead of water for no apparent reason. Share price has fallen 99.5% from its 2015 peak.

[spectoacc] 22/11/2019 13:33

CityWire reporting Oxford Nano's long-delayed fundraising is coming "before the end of the year", and at a decent valuation - c.12% above Woody/WEIF/Link's valuation.

Hold your horses tho - they're also trying to organise an exit, at a lower price nearer to WEIF NAV. Still a positive, and for WPCT, if it goes out anywhere near NAV.

[spectoacc] 22/11/2019 09:38

4th time I've seen this posted, and will be no less cr*p! Edward is saying what we said, only he's saying it after the event. (Basically - Woody abandoned his previous Invesco strategy after a few years of WIM, switching to much riskier unlisteds/unicorns/smallcaps).

[tomps2] 22/11/2019 09:26

What went wrong at #Woodford: A forensic investigation of the Woodford Equity Income Fund's history.

This does not relate to the Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), but I thought there were some interesting insights raised, that makes this investigation into the Woodford Equity Income fund here, of interest. Although nothing can be done to reverse events for those holders of the WIEF, it's important to recognise what investors can learn from the mistakes made, for future successful investing.

This is the keynote presentation at Mello London November 2019 by Edward Page Crofts, Founder, Stockopedia.

[spectoacc] 21/11/2019 08:46

Still a fairly unacceptable c.£60m loss when the writing had been on the wall for so long.

[andy] 21/11/2019 08:37

You ight want to edit that post a bit to delete the bits after the article.


I'm pleased KCC have billions of other investments to offset their Woodford losses, for the sake of their pensioners, I did wonder what percentage was with Woodford.

[spectoacc] 20/11/2019 10:32

Everything over 0.2% below, but from end-June. A laugh they describe Rutherford as "quoted". IH now much less, and presume this is pre-selling half of Autolus in the market. Oxford Nano are meant to be raising money but has all gone quiet again. That's likely the next write-down.

Autolus has fans, Oxford Nano too, but plenty think Rutherford, Benevolent, IH could be zeros eventually.

No. Company name Quoted/
unquoted
Sector GAV
weight (%)
1 Oxford Nanopore Unquoted Health Care 9.40
2 Rutherford Health Quoted Health Care 9.23
3 Atom Bank Unquoted Financials 9.11
4 Industrial Heat Quoted* Industrials 8.98
5 Benevolent AI Unquoted Technology 7.96
6 Autolus Quoted Health Care 5.83
7 Inivata Unquoted Health Care 3.58
8 Immunocore Unquoted Health Care 3.43
9 Federated Wireless Unquoted Technology 2.45
10 Mission Therapeutics Unquoted Health Care 2.43
11 Ratesetter Unquoted Financials 2.37
12 Ultrahaptics Unquoted Technology 2.33
13 Evofem Quoted Health Care 2.25
14 Mafic Unquoted Industrials 2.20
15 Carrick Therapeutics Unquoted Health Care 2.08
16 CeQur Unquoted Health Care 1.99
17 Ombu Quoted* Financials 1.98
18 Kymab Group Unquoted Health Care 1.90
19 Spin Memory Unquoted Technology 1.77
20 Kind Consumer Unquoted Consumer Goods 1.65
21 Seedrs Unquoted Financials 1.61
22 Reaction Engines Unquoted Technology 1.48
23 AMO Pharma Unquoted Health Care 1.44
24 ReNeuron Quoted Health Care 1.44
25 Genomics Unquoted Health Care 1.08
26 Lignia Wood Unquoted Industrials 1.03
27 IDEX ASA Quoted Technology 0.93
28 Accelerated Digital Ventures Unquoted Financials 0.83
29 Cell Medica Unquoted Health Care 0.80
30 Sphere Medical Holding PLC Unquoted Health Care 0.76
31 Malin Corp PLC Quoted Financials 0.69
32 Yoyo Wallet Unquoted Technology 0.59
33 Mercia Technologies PLC Quoted Financials 0.59
34 Mereo Biopharma Group PLC Quoted Health Care 0.48
35 DDF Parallel Unquoted Health Care 0.46
36 PsiOxus Therapeutics Unquoted Health Care 0.34
37 4d pharma plc Quoted Health Care 0.31
38 Xeros Technology Group PLC Quoted Industrials 0.27
39 Econic Technologies Unquoted Industrials 0.27
40 American Financial Exchange Unquoted Financials 0.23

[spectoacc] 20/11/2019 10:31

"0p-20p" IMO - felt like nearer 0p when WEIF wind-up announced, perhaps nudged back towards 20p with intention to appoint Schroders - but is all up in the air.

Can't see any great results from any of the holdings, so comes down to what WEIF can sell them for, whether they go to strong hands (eg Benevolent AI clearly going to keep going a while with Temasek behind it; Rutherford have successfully borrowed money elsewhere. But what price either of those when sold out of WEIF?), and most importantly, January's OD deadline..

Still a scenario where it's 0p, despite seemingly 56p NAV, & not sure what it would trade at if say the few larger, more liquid holdings (Autolus, perhaps Atom Bank) were cleared out to repay the (£117m? £109m?) OD. Sometimes worth a read through the long list of holdings to look for value - there's almost none I'd want to own, and where are the exits? When would shareholders ever get a return?

[porsche1945] 20/11/2019 10:21

Is this heading for the teens, .18 or something the “ floor “??

[jonwig] 20/11/2019 08:39

"Crestfallen" implies a measure of contrition. not appropriate for someone who feels there was a conspiracy (of events?) against him.

"Infamy, infamy, they've all..."

[spectoacc] 20/11/2019 07:55

"..Crestfallen erstwhile investment star Neil Woodford.." as the IC describe him - not bad - whilst justifying having picked WPCT last year as their "Round the World in 8 Investment Trusts" UK pick. WPCT returned them -62% :)

[spectoacc] 18/11/2019 15:57

And allegedly c.£50m for HL in fees from clients holding the Woody funds they ramped them into.

CityWire reckoned another 33% haircut for WEIF holders but I think even us bears agree that's nonsense. Further to fall, certainly, but the wipeouts are at the smaller end now, and a couple of unicorns. The rest of the fund is mainly housebuilders & Neil's dubious FTSE100 picks (just remembered that BT was one) :)

I'd guess half that from here, ie c.15% more, post-IH etc. And some of that is fees.

Edit - interesting that several of the press stories haven't come to pass yet - eg the "£200-400m bid for the life science holdings" & Oxford Nano's supposed fundraising. Benevolent AI the only press story to come in.

[jonwig] 18/11/2019 14:49

@ fpladdict - WEIF was gated so that there wouldn't be a queue of redemption requests, and your fears won't happen because it won't be re-opened. It will be wound up once it's fully cashed-in, so all unit holders will get the same payout.

Amazingly, when it was gated, Woody objected saying he could have managed. but that's ridiculous, as those slower on the uptake would have got zero.

It will be a similar process with WIFF - either liquidation or absorption into another fund.

The rewards of failure over five years: £50m for Woodford, £30m for Newman. At least in recent photos, our Neil has lost his smug expression.

[fpladdict] 18/11/2019 14:37

There are some figures being banded about regarding the windup of WEIF. I have read people are to get 30-40% back. That is a huge haircut - the multimanager funds at HL are going to be hit hard by that, they have large exposure to WEIF. The last to put the redemption requests in are going to be hit the hardest. Surely HL should find a fairer way to do it?

[spectoacc] 18/11/2019 13:37

"Hargreaves Lansdown customers own around three-quarters of the £244 million fund, which was heavily promoted by the online stockbroker" (The suspended IFF).

[tim 3] 18/11/2019 10:06

The one good thing about SJP is they did not allow him to buy the unlisted and small cap rubbish (still performed horrendously though)

[fpladdict] 18/11/2019 08:01

Yes SpectoAcc it is worth recalling that. The NAV is and always has been a complete scam which has sucked many buyers in. A misrepresentation of reality. Regulation in the UK is terrible as always.

[spectoacc] 18/11/2019 07:52

@fpladdict - how Link get away with issuing a daily NAV, to two decimal places, is beyond me. And then to only dribble it down (eg on IH), and still leaving it way too high.

NAV had unacceptable material uncertainty throughout, but recognisably so on WEIF's gating, with the number of stocks held in common. That should have been the cue to either suspend WPCT, or at least suspend issuing the NAV. Always worth recalling how Neil quietly sold the majority of his personal holding in early July.

A case of everyone relying on/blaming everyone else - WPCT Board can say it's Woody, Woody can say it's Link, Link can say it's their external valuers - but where does the buck stop? I don't know anyone for example who thought the +8p onto WPCT's NAV for IH was justified.

[jonwig] 17/11/2019 14:31

Short sellers swarm around Hargreaves Lansdown and St James’s Place
Leading UK financial services providers face scrutiny over links to Neil Woodford’s failed empire

Hedge funds are circling Hargreaves Lansdown and St James’s Place, as two of Britain’s best-known financial services providers are scrutinised for their close association with scandal-hit fund manager Neil Woodford.


That alone is not enough: they smell legal actions galore. Even the launch of one, let alone its success, should hit the share prices.