Neil Woodford’s defunct investment firm raked in more than half a million pounds last year.
Woodford Investment Management (WIM) pulled in £590,209 in the year to March 2021 despite having no funds left to manage following Woodford’s fall from grace in 2019. The money was generated from ‘consulting work’ that Woodford performed.
Formerly a highly-regarded stock picker, Woodford has now been working as an advisor to Acacia Research in the United States. Acacia purchased several stocks from Woodford’s Equity Income fund that was about to collapse. Woodford may have received additional cash from Acacia, but it was unclear.
Profits: Woodford Investment Management pulled in £590,209 in the year to March 2021 despite having no funds to manage following Neil Woodford’s (pictured) fall from grace in 2019
But the fees paid to WIM are likely to anger savers who suffered massive losses when Woodford’s firm crashed.
WIM accounts show it generated an overall loss of £4.1million, after incurring £5.1million of ‘administrative expenses’.
These were mainly legal fees and other costs it was forced to pay in relation to the Financial Conduct Authority’s ongoing investigation into Woodford and his collapsed firm.
WIM has stopped paying Woodford, aged 61, or Craig Newman (51), dividends. They had bagged £113million between them since in 2014.
But it also said it was waiting for ‘contingent events’ to take place which would mean more money flowing in. Sources in the city speculated that it would be against, or a lawsuit.
Link, the firm that was supposed to be keeping an eye on Woodford’s funds and which eventually fired him from running his fund. Link stated that WIM had not brought any legal action against them.
The accounts also show a mystery party paid WIM £4million for warrants giving them the right to take a stake. One fund manager said: ‘On the face of it, investing £4million into a defunct company seems counter-intuitive.
I suspect there are strong commercial reasons why someone might have done this – possibly to fund a fight against Link.’
Woodford spoke to a source that denied the warrants had been part of any formal arrangement for litigation financing.
Woodford’s spokesperson declined to comment.