ASI named manager of Woodford's last fund
Aberdeen Standard Investments has been appointed manager of Neil Woodford’s last remaining fund, it was announced on Friday.
Link Fund Solutions, the fund’s administrator, said management of the suspended Woodford Income Focus will switch to ASI as at 31 December. The suspension will remain in place until February, however.
ASI’s Thomas Moore and Charles Luke will run the fund, which will be renamed the ASI Income Focus Fund and is believed to have around £245m assets under management.
The move rounds off Woodford’s dramatic fall from grace this year. The disgraced stock picker’s largest fund, the £3bn Woodford Equity Income fund, was suspended in the summer after a number of investors sought to take their money out.
The move sent shockwaves through the investment industry and in October Woodford was forced to close his investment management business, Woodford Investment Management, after Link announced it was winding up the Equity Income fund.
Woodford managed three funds: Equity Income, Income Focus and Woodford Patient Capital. Schroders has already taken over from Woodford Investment Management as manager of the listed Patient Capital fund.
Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, said the appointment of ASI will "bring some relief to investors who now have some clarity as to what will happen to their money as we enter 2020".
"The question for those investors now is should they stay with the new manager or move onto a different fund.
"Thomas Moore and Charles Luke are both experienced equity income managers but both have underperformed the FTSE All Share Index with their open-ended funds over the past five years, which may be cause for concern to some investors, despite Moore’s longer-term track record being impressive."