Neil Woodford and his business partner took £13.8m in dividends last year from their investment management company months before the implosion of its main fund, which left 300,000 investors nursing large losses.
It is understood Woodford collected two-thirds of the dividend, which brings the total payout for the former star stockpicker and his partner, Craig Newman, to £112m since 2014.
At least 300,000 investors remain trapped in the Woodford equity income fund, which was suspended in June last year. Last month, the administrator winding up the fund told investors they had lost nearly one-fifth of their money and selling the remaining assets was proving more difficult than expected.
Woodford faced a barrage of criticism for continuing to charge management fees after the suspension, but was unrepentant. In the full-year accounts issued on Tuesday, the company said press coverage was also to blame for the fund’s demise as well as Woodford’s poor stockpicking.
“Underperformance in the fund combined with a period of sustained and negative press coverage” had resulted the wave of redemptions by investors, it said.
Moira O’Neill of the interactive investor platform said: “This is a sad reminder yet again that when things go wrong, it is always the investor left picking up the pieces – in this case, 300,000 of them. It will rub salt in the wounds of those worried about their security and comfort in retirement.”
A Woodford spokesperson said: “The accounts relate to the financial year before the equity income fund was suspended. We can confirm that the partners did not take any profits or income during the fund’s suspension, nor was any management fee earned from managing Woodford Patient Capital Trust.”
Woodford’s flagship fund was once worth more than £10bn, but fell below £3bn as investors rushed to withdraw their money after a series of poorly performing stock picks, including the online estate agent Purplebricks, the finance company Burford Capital and the doorstep lender Provident Financial.
The fund’s administrator, Link Fund Solutions, could not find a way to maintain the core Woodford equity income fund as a continuing entity. But the report and accounts covering the year to March 2019, signed off by Newman a month after the fund’s suspension, described Woodford Investment Management as meeting its “key performance indicators”, which “showed that the company performed in line with expectations”.
It added that “measures have been taken to reshape the business in light of the reduced revenue expectations with a view to remain debt free and with no intention or need to raise capital from other sources”.
The collapse of the Woodford fund was one of the biggest investment scandals of the past decade and reverberated through the fund management industry. The financial adviser Hargreaves Lansdown now faces legal actions from disgruntled investors who bought in to Woodford as it was on the company’s “best buy” list.
Woodford’s once-stellar reputation as a stockpicker lies in tatters, but investors were left stunned last month by a Bloomberg report that said Woodford and Newman had flown to China to test investors’ appetite for a potential comeback.
It reported they were having “exploratory meetings with investors interested in early-stage assets”.
Problems with illiquid assets, which are difficult to sell quickly, were at the heart of many of the Woodford fund’s issues. After its suspension, the Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, said investment funds that included illiquid assets but allowed investors to take out their money whenever they liked were “built on a lie” and could pose a big risk to the financial sector.
News of the dividends collected by Woodford prompted questions in the House of Commons on Tuesday, with the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, saying the debacle raised questions about the suitability of Andrew Bailey, the head of the City regulator, to be the next Bank governor.
“It adds to the concerns already expressed by others that Mr Bailey was asleep at the wheel during his period in office at the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority],” he said.
The chancellor, Sajid Javid, said: “Any reasonable person who looks at Mr Bailey’s track record of outstanding public service will see that he is eminently qualified.”
Meanwhile, Terry Smith, the manager of the £18.8bn Fundsmith equity fund, was paid £16.2m in the year to end March 2019, up from £12m the year before, according to filings at Companies House.
Someone investing in Woodford equity income five years ago would now be sitting on a loss of 21%, compared with the 132% gain made by Fundsmith Equity over the same period.
