Woodford will land at Oakley’s offices in early May and is expected to launch the fund then, with a three-week introductory offer period.
Woodford Investment Management LLP was registered with Companies House in January at the same London address as Oakley Capital by Nicholas Hamilton and Richard Graham Catherwood Smith (known as Gray Smith).
While Oakley has confirmed it was providing “infrastructure” to Woodford, the arrangement was always said to be transitional for contractual reasons given his planned departure from the Henley-based business on 29 April.
It was always understood Woodford would be setting up his own shop, and the return of former Invesco Perpetual global head of equity products Nick Hamilton to the UK to take on the role of chief operating officer at Oakley to work alongside Woodford further cements the ‘IP Mark II’ expectation.
Craig Newman, having also working alongside Woodford and Hamilton as sales director, was appointed by Oakley Capital Management as head of retail asset management in November.
Hamilton, having worked at Invesco Perpetual for almost a decade, will return from Australia where he has been working as head of institutional business at Colonial First State in Sydney.
The fund will sit in the IMA UK Equity Income sector.
Exact details about the firm and its offerings will follow in due course, but Woodford’s “unconstrained, fundamental and disciplined approach to investing will remain the same”, according to Oakley.
Woodford is also understood to be considering the launch of an ‘incubator’ style fund which will look at the small and unlisted end of the equity market, which may be a closed-ended structure.
