Invesco alumni Saku Saha has exited Woodford Investment Management having worked with Neil Woodford for a decade and joining his firm soon after the Equity Income launch.
The Evening Standard reported on Tuesday afternoon that Saha had exited on Friday, the same week Woodford confirmed there would be redundancies among support staff due to the Equity Income fund suspension and the subsequent falls in assets under management.
A Woodford spokesperson confirmed the departure to Portfolio Adviser.
Saha joined Woodford in 2014 alongside twins Stephen and Paul Lamacraft, who also defected from Invesco to become fund managers. He focused on early stage and growth companies.
In an update for investors from 2014, Woodford said the trio would augment the dedicated investment resource he already had at his disposal. “They are all excellent people and I am really excited about working alongside them again in a much more aligned, supportive and stimulating environment.”
He had written three posts via the Woodford blog, all published in 2015, that covered Oxford Nanopore, Allied Minds and the effect of the US presidential election in 2016 on drug prices.
In 2018, when Woodford updated investors about a failed drug trial at Prothena, head of investment communications Mitchell Fraser-Jones stressed that the firm had enough dedicated resource in the biotech space, pointing to Saku, alongside analyst Lucinda Crabtree. “Although not from a scientific background, [he] has been working alongside Neil since 2009, with a specific focus on early-stage healthcare companies,” Fraser-Jones said.
The Evening Standard reported he is currently seeking fresh opportunities in the City and said his departure was amicable. Woodford would not confirm if his exit was connected to the redundancies.
