At a time when investors are ditching Woodford funds, Admans said he has increased his stake in Woodford’s PCT by 0.6%, making the holding 5.20% of the portfolio.
Speaking to Portfolio Adviser, he said: “While everyone else has been getting rid of Woodford, it’s been quite testing for us. He’s not in there in because he’s Neil Woodford, he’s in there because he shares similar considerations with regards to the UK market that we do.”
The Share Centre’s Multi-manager Cautious fund’s second largest holding is Woodford’s flagship Equity Income fund at 10.4% and it is the third largest holding in the Multi-manager Balanced fund with 8.66%, according to FE.
Sector bias
Admans (pictured) explained that he holds Woodford because he has a preference towards healthcare and tech, mid and small cap, and disruptive type technologies, all of which fit what Woodford does.
“Woodford’s had quite a few blow-ups such as with Prothena recently and it is obviously quite testing”, he added. “But, I think it’s magnified if you’re Neil Woodford because of your reputation in the market.
“However, we’ve continued to add to him and we’re looking closely what’s been blowing up. We’re taking a longer-term view on this and it’s nice not to be in a crowded trade.”
UK vs US
Admans also said he has a larger stake in the UK than US.
“We’re overweight UK across the three portfolios, we’ve been building that position coming out of last year in to this year which is probably a bit contrarian to most. We don’t think the UK market is in as bad a shape as everyone wanted to believe. It’s not been amazing, but it’s held up pretty well.
“We’re probably with the view that a Brexit deal or a no Brexit deal doesn’t make us hugely any better or worse off. And while looking at valuations thinking Brexit doesn’t make a big difference, we felt we should build our position, so we have.”
In the Multi-manager Cautious portfolio, the UK stake is 34.19% and US is 11.23%, according to FE. Likewise, the balanced portfolio has 35.07% in the UK, compared with 15.51% in the US.
However, the Multi-manager Adventurous portfolio has a 20.63% stake in the UK versus 23.14% in the US, according to FE.
