Jupiter pulls investment from Neil Woodford’s flagship fund
Group withdraws about £300m after string of share price falls dent performance
One of the UK’s biggest fund investors, Jupiter, has pulled out hundreds of millions of pounds from Neil Woodford’s flagship income fund, after two decades of backing the renowned equity manager.
John Chatfeild-Roberts, head of Jupiter Asset Management’s Merlin funds range, withdrew the vast majority of his investment from the Woodford Equity Income fund during September, according to people close to the managers.
The move is a setback to Mr Woodford, who has suffered a torrid few months after the share prices of a number of his holdings, including Provident Financial, have fallen sharply.
Mr Chatfeild-Roberts was one of Mr Woodford’s longstanding backers and among the first seed investors to back the manager when he departed from Invesco Perpetual in 2013 to establish his own fund boutique, Woodford Investment Management.
“I can’t remember a time when John hasn’t supported Neil,” said one person in the industry.
Jupiter had invested in Mr Woodford’s £8.9bn Income fund through its Merlin Growth, Balanced and Income funds. The Merlin redemptions are understood to be just under £300m.
Mr Woodford rose to prominence during the financial crisis at Invesco Perpetual, when he shunned banking stocks. He developed a stellar reputation after he turned a £1,000 investment into £25,000 over his 26 years running the Invesco Perpetual High Income fund.
But Mr Woodford has been hit by a series of woes since 2016. One of his holdings is troubled doorstep lender Provident Financial, where he is the second-largest shareholder. Provident’s share price plunged nearly 70 per cent on August 22 due to a botched restructuring of its home credit businesses.
Last month, Mr Woodford apologised to investors after losing hundreds of millions of pounds on the back of sliding share prices in investments including pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and intellectual property group Allied Minds, as well as Provident.
In a video Mr Woodford said: “It’s been a difficult period. And I’m very sorry for the poor performance that we’ve delivered really now since 2016.”
The £8.8bn fund has lost 0.3 per cent over 12 months, compared with returns of 10 per cent for the wider IA UK equity income benchmark, according to Trustnet, the data provider.
The Jupiter withdrawal raises concerns over liquidity, as Mr Woodford holds large positions in certain companies. Any significant investor redemption would make it harder for Mr Woodford to sell his investments.
Woodford IM said: “The transaction was concluded in September and the current assets under management of £8.9bn reflect this.”
Jupiter declined to comment.