At a time when Woodford’s funds are haemorrhaging money, his flagship equity income fund shrinking from around £8.72bn at the end of October to its current £8.17bn, Admans (pictured) said he and co-manager Andy Parsons remain “happy building our position.”
The CF Woodford Equity Income fund is currently the biggest holding of the TC Share Centre Multi Manager Cautious fund at 11% and 5.89% of the Balanced mandate. However, both of these weightings are down slightly from what they were at 31 August 2017 (11.6% and 6.46%, respectively).
The final fund in its £100m multi-manager range, the TC Share Centre MM Adventurous mandate, has a 4.59% stake in Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust.
“We recognise that all fund managers are at risk of having some blow-ups in the portfolios over time and Neil is not immune to this,” Admans said. “Nevertheless, Neil’s approach is tried and tested and the fund has outperformed its FTSE All Share benchmark since inception, with lower drawdown and downside risk.”
Healthcare bias
Admans continues to see value in the sector biases across Woodford’s equity income fund and PCT, healthcare in particular.
One of the selling points for him is that the former Invesco Perpetual manager invests across the market cap, from fledgling start-ups to mid and large-caps in a diverse array of sub-sectors.
Woodford’s equity income portfolio includes the likes of FTSE 250 firm BTG, which develops products that target cancer and other critical disorders, and the UK’s second largest private healthcare provider Spire Healthcare, gene editing group Horizon Discovery and a little under 30 unquoted firms.
“We believe there remains a long-term compelling argument for investing in healthcare,” Admans said. “Technological change, combined with the shift to more aged populations in a number of global markets and greater consumption of healthcare products and services, has resulted in the sector exhibiting more growth characteristics.
“In addition, certain modern-day health problems such as diabetes and obesity are presenting investment opportunities, as consumers become more affluent and healthcare more affordable in emerging economies.”
Patience is a virtue
Admans also thinks Woodford’s calls on financials and the housebuilders will benefit as central banks begin the process of monetary tightening and the government promises housing supply issues will be top of its agenda.
He also thinks that many of the unlisted, smaller start-ups populating Woodford’s PCT should receive a boost from the Budget’s commitment to investing £2.5bn in young knowledge-based British businesses.
“We continue to believe over the long-term, small and non-listed companies have a greater ability to grow their revenues over large caps,” Admans said, and if they are backed by an active manager “there is a greater chance they will be acquired, they tend to have less leverage and finally they tend to trade at a discount to their intrinsic value.”
