Fund manager Neil Woodford is on the verge of securing a team of bankers to sell a portfolio of private companies in a rescue bid that will raise hundreds of millions of pounds.
Sky News reports the stricken manager’s boutique firm is days away from finalising a deal with advisers PJT Park Hill to offload stakes including Atom Bank, as well as one of the fund’s largest unquoted holdings Oxford Nanopore.
PJT Park Hill, a division of investment bank PJT Partners, is said to be considering single or multiple buyers. Bankers from PJT are also involved in the mandate.
City sources told Sky Woodford would not contemplate selling the stakes at a discount.
Stakes in Atom Bank, Oxford Nanopore and Proton Partners are among the holdings in the Woodford Equity Income fund that will be up for sale.
Woodford was forced to gate his £3.7bn ($4.7bn, €4.13bn) fund earlier this month after one of his largest institutional investors Kent County Council put in a request to redeem £250m.
Historical commitments
According to his website, which now only displays the top 10 holdings of Woodford Equity Income, DNA sequencer biotech firm Oxford Nanopore made up 3.01% of the portfolio at the end of May. While the biotech firm is not a public company, Woodford was able to classify the stock as a listed security given the likelihood of an impending IPO.
Proton Partners is one of the illiquid positions Woodford has been adding to while his fund is suspended. He gave the Welsh firm specialising in proton therapy beams £25m last week, which Woodford Investment Management said was down to “historical commitments”.
In the days and weeks since the fund’s suspension Woodford has been selling down a slew of his more liquid holdings to shore up liquidity.
MSCI put out a note on Tuesday which classified 80% of the assets in Woodford Equity Income portfolio as illiquid securities, falling outside the MSCI ACWI Investible Market Index.
Woodford Investment Management declined to comment.
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