Link Fund Solutions has revealed £183m will be paid to investors trapped in the former Woodford Equity Income fund next week, but has given no update on the sale of remaining assets and has delayed publication of the fund’s accounts by a month.
The authorised corporate director (ACD) has freed up the cash to make a third distribution to investors as it receives proceeds from the sale of assets to Acacia Research and amounts received since the second capital distribution.
On 29 July, the ACD informed investors it had £58m of cash to distribute, but added this value would increase over the next three weeks as cash drips through from the Acacia proceeds.
Investors will be notified on 24 August regarding the individual amount they will receive and this should be in their bank account on or around 26 August. Investors who access the fund through a platform may receive payments a few days later, Link said.
No sign of shifting remaining illiquid assets
But AJ Bell personal finance analyst Laura Suter noted there is no sign of Link and the asset managers shifting the remaining illiquid assets in the fund, except to say “disposing of these assets may take some time”.
Suter said: “This means the process will drag on for even longer for investors, who just want to get as much of their money back as possible and move on from the sorry saga.”
In total Link has returned £2.45bn of the fund’s capital to investors after £2.1bn was paid out in January and a further £143m distributed in March.
Link delays publication of fund accounts
Link also said it had delayed by a month publication of the fund’s annual accounts for the year ending March 2020.
In its 29 July letter, Link anticipated publication would be no later than 31 August, but said in the latest letter “the significant amount of work” involved in finalising the financial statements and the detail of the post balance sheet events including the Acacia transaction has delayed this until 30 September at the latest.
Suter said this will frustrate investors.
“This is another blow to investors who haven’t had access to a proper report and financial statements for the fund since the interim report for the six months ending 30 June 2019, well over a year ago,” she said.
“When they finally arrive the accounts will provide a bit more clarity to investors on the sale process and costs involved, but will now be over six months out of date by the time they are published.”
