Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019 Page 3
Strolling in jeans
and trainers, shamed
millionaire fund
boss Neil Woodford
breaks cover for
first time in months
By Jim Norton, Hugo Duncan
and James BurtonBritish savers in uproar, barred
from accessing their nest eggs
for months because his fund
has run out of ready cash.
But the multi-millionaire fin-
ancier is still charging fees
totalling almost £100,000 every
working day, meaning his
Woodford Investment Manage-
ment company is on course to
rake in almost £12million from
trapped clients before the fund
is reopened.
The one-time star stock
picker, who has been keeping a
very low profile, appeared
briefly before driving away in
his £86,000 Audi RS6 Avant.
Mr Woodford was among the
first to arrive on Tuesday morn-
ing as he parked his Audi just
before 7am in the nearest bay
to the reception at the firm’s
three-storey office in a drab
business park in Cowley.
He left at 5.45pm, presumably
for his £13.7million home near
Tetbury in the Cotswolds,
where the keen horserider
lives with his 47-year-old
second wife Madelaine and
their two young children.
His property portfolio alsoincludes a lavish six-bedroom
seafront holiday home in
Salcombe, Devon, which he
has spent huge amounts of
money extending and renovat-
ing since he bought it for
£6.35million in 2017.
The frown on Mr Woodford’s
face as he left work may have
been caused in part by the rev-
elation the previous day that
he has cashed in £1million of
shares from a separate fund,
Woodford Patient Capital
Trust, to pay a tax bill – just asowned, above the EU limit. He
has broken the 10 per cent limit
twice previously.
James Daley, of consumer
group Fairer Finance, said:
‘Investors want to hear from
Mr Woodford. For many people
this has been a very traumatic
experience. The least he and
his team could do is communi-
cate with their customers.’
On his website, Mr Woodford
has apologised but insisted his
strategy would be proved right
eventually. Last night, his
spokesman said: ‘Since the sus-
pension, Neil has been up and
down the country meeting inves-
tors, as well as keeping them
informed through our website.
‘The company will continue
to charge a management fee as
we focus on repositioning the
portfolio, to cover the infra-
structure and resource costs
associated with running an
actively managed fund.’
Mr Woodford had elected not
to take any income or dividends
from the company while the
fund is suspended, he said.Woodford has spent vast sums renovating his six-bedroom property, circled, in SalcombePICTURE
EXCLUSIVE
Dressed
down for
disaster
DRESSED casually in jeans
and trainers, a rucksack slung
over one shoulder, this is the
fallen superstar of the invest-
ment world.
Neil Woodford has not been seen
in public for two months follow-
ing revelations about his failing
billion-pound flagship fund.
The beleaguered 59-year-old was
spotted for the first time when he left
this company’s headquarters in
Oxford on Tuesday evening after an
11-hour day.
Mr Woodford has come under fire
after it was revealed he pumped bil-
lions of Equity Income Fund custom-
ers’ cash into risky investments that
were hard to sell in a hurry.
He has left tens of thousands of‘Investors want to
hear from him’Feeling the strain? Neil Woodford leaving his office in Oxford on TuesdayPicture: BRADLEY PAGE£6.35M HOLIDAY HOME
his investors were warned they
face being denied access to
their money until December.
Yesterday, it was revealed
that he has breached EU rules
over Equity Income for a third
time. Three of his big invest-
ments came off the Guernsey
stock exchange, meaning more
than 10 per cent of holdings in
the fund are now privatelyV