Nearly six months after the successful launch of Woodford Equity Income, veteran equity investor Neil Woodford is considering a second fund investing in start-ups and smaller companies – an area that he has championed in the past. The new Woodford Funds offering is expected to offer investors exposure to global smaller companies – but it is unclear whether the fund will be open or closed end in structure, or when it will be launched.
The new fund will have a bias towards biotech and innovation, a sector that Woodford supported for some time and to which he has allocated a proportion of his Equity Income fund.
Woodford already invests in Stem cell business ReNeuron (RENE) and Oxfordshire drug company e-Therapeutics (ETX). Woodford Funds is based just 13.5 miles away from the science park where e-Therapeutics is based. The county boasts 50 high tech and innovation businesses.
Woodford Equity Income has 5% invested in the US and 11% invested across Europe, it is expected that any new fund will continue to look outside of the UK for stock opportunities.
In an exclusive interview with Morningstar.co.uk in July shortly after the Income fund launch Woodford said that the UK had some of the best universities in the world, which were developing some of the best intellectual property.
“This technology needs nurturing and I believe that by investing with long-term, patient capital can help these early-stage technology businesses fulfil their potential and add meaningfully to the long-term performance of the fund,” he said
Speaking at a dinner before the launch of Woodford Income in May, the fund manager said that the UK was unsurpassed in terms of innovation, but that the fund management industry, and in particular the nature of smaller company investments such as venture capital trusts did not adequately support this sector.
“The venture capital investment structure is too short-termist and too focussed on the end result for the investor rather than the business they are investing in. Venture capital funds should be helping these inventors and developing their ambition.”
Morningstar fund analysts have awarded Woodford Equity Income a Bronze Rating. Analysts have downgraded Woodford’s former open end funds and investment trust, now run by Mark Barnett, following his departure from Invesco Perpetual last October.