"Big questions remain" as to whether the asset management industry has learned its lesson from the collapse of Neil Woodford's LF Woodford Equity Income fund this time last year, according to investment professionals, who warn that liquidity mismatches in open-ended funds remain the "elephant in the room".
On 3 June 2019, so-called star manager Neil Woodford's LF Woodford Equity Income fund suspended trading following withdrawals of approximately £560m over a four-week period, which was exacerbated by the vehicle's significant proportion of illiquid holdings. On 15 October, Link Fund Solutions (LFS), the firm's authorised corporate director (ACD) sacked Woodford and wound up the flagship fund. Woodford shut his entire business down hours later. The fund is now technically run by LFS and named LF Equity Income, although Park Hill is responsible for shifting its £500m portfolio of illiqu...
To continue reading this article...
Join Investment Week for free
Signup and gain exclusive members-only insights - all free of charge!
- Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
- Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
- Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
- Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
- Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes
