MSCI: 85% of Woodford's portfolio was illiquid

UCITS rules need changing

The LF Woodford Equity Income fund (WEIF) had 85% of its net asset value (NAV) invested in illiquid securities, both listed and unlisted, and as a result would have had to have suspended trading even if it had offloaded all of its unlisted holdings, according to index and data provider MSCI.

Dealing in the fund, run by Neil Woodford, was suspended on 3 June as it ran into serious liquidity issues after continued mass outflows. The fund shrank in size from over £10bn in April 2017 to just £3.7bn days before it was shuttered. In a recent letter, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said last week that the fund had breached rules that limit the amount of unlisted securities an open-ended fund with daily dealing can own to 10% of NAV as far back as February 2018. Furthermore, CEO Andrew Bailey said, the proportion of unlisted stocks had risen to around 20% of NAV 12 months l...