Woodford IM: Summer headwinds for Equity Income fund are beginning to reverse

Hurt by raft of share price falls

The investment team at Woodford Investment Management believe there are 'encouraging' signs of a reversal in the factors that contributed to the underperformance of the £8.9bn UK Equity Income fund in the first half of the year.

The fund's performance was hit over the summer by sharp share price falls for key holdings such as Provident Financial and AstraZeneca, which fell 70% and 16% in a day, respectively. This caused the Equity Income fund to underperform, while some investors, including Jupiter's Merlin team, chose to withdraw their holdings, sending assets under management down to £8.9bn in September from a peak above £10bn in June. Over the three months to 19 October, the fund has lost 4% versus positive returns of 3.1% by the IA UK Equity Income sector, according to FE. Woodford: I'm very sorry for ...