The family office investment firm that made headlines for seeking Neil Woodford’s expertise on unquoted assets has clarified that it reached out to the fallen fund manager for due diligence reasons as it eyes up some of his former holdings.
Reports emerged in July that Woodford and his business partner Craig Newman, who helped him launch his now defunct boutique fund house, had been appointed by Juno Capital in an advisory capacity as the firm looked to build a portfolio of private healthcare investments.
News of Woodford’s return less than a year after the implosion of Woodford Investment Management left the industry gobsmacked with many questioning why Juno had sought Woodford’s expertise in an area “where he’s had his biggest failures”.
In a statement published to its website, Juno confirmed it had spoken to Woodford and Newman as part of a due diligence exercise. It said reports the pair “have been or will be employed by Juno as advisers are untrue”.
The firm, which sources deals for family offices and ultra high net worth individuals, said it had been “considering whether any of the ex-Woodford assets could be of interest to its family office connections” and had gone to Woodford and Newman for their perspective as former stakeholders.
“The entire process is at a very early stage and no decisions have yet been made about whether to proceed beyond preliminary due diligence,” the firm said in a statement.
It is unclear which former Woodford holdings the alternatives manager is eyeing up and whether any are assets that Link Fund Solutions, the authorised corporate director of Woodford’s former Equity Income fund, has sold or is trying to divest.
Juno did not respond to Portfolio Adviser’s request for comment.
So far 80% of Woodford’s flagship fund, renamed LF Equity Income, has been liquidated with cash returned to investors. Link freed up another £224m after Acacia Research agreed to buy a bundle of healthcare assets in the fund. The US investor swiftly flipped significant portions of the stakes days after acquiring them.
Juno has built up stakes in four biotech firms, including Sky Medical, which manufactures devices to increase blood circulation, and anti-infective drug maker Destiny Pharma, according to its website.
The firm bills itself as “an innovative specialist alternative asset manager” that services a network of wealthy individuals and family offices and targets assets that are “overlooked by mainstream asset managers and private banks” like venture capital, asset-backed fixed income and niche property.
