Link Fund Solutions has rid the former Woodford Equity Income fund of its remaining stake in the former Woodford Patient Capital Trust, a week after it halved its investment at a 74% loss.
The board of the Schroder UK Public Private Trust, as the mandate is now known thanks to its new management, confirmed the sale in a regulatory filing on Thursday. It said the entire stake had been sold.
Link had last week halved its stake in the investment trust, which Neil Woodford had added to his Woodford Equity Income fund in March 2019 as part of a share swap.
The initial stake held by the Woodford Equity Income fund had been 9%, but that dropped to 4.76% in a transaction on 14 May. The Schroder UK Public Private Trust did not confirm on what date the remaining 4.76% was disposed.
Woodford Equity Income acquired the stake at net asset value, which was then 96.67p. In exchange, the investment trust took on five unquoted companies that Woodford needed to offload from his open-ended fund due to liquidity problems.
On the day of last week’s transaction, the investment trust was trading between 23.64p and 24.76p, a 74% loss on the price originally paid. In the period since it has peaked at 25.6p.
The stocks involved in the original transaction – Atom Bank, Carrick Therapeutics, Cell Medica, Ratesetter and Spin Memory – were valued at £73m in the deal last year, which came months before the Woodford Equity Income fund suspended due to liquidity problems.
By the end of December 2019, they collectively represented £120.6m on a fair value basis, although that includes additional funding that was allocated to Atom Bank after the transaction with Woodford Equity Income.
> See also: Schroders trust makes headway despite Woodford ‘baggage’ and virus crisis
