Fund manager Neil Woodford has sold his entire stake in Oxford Sciences Innovation, worth close to $70m, as his funds have come under increasing pressure.
UK-based investment firm Woodford Investment Management has sold its entire shareholding in Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), the university venture fund of University of Oxford, according to the Sunday Times.
The stake, worth £55m ($69.6m), has seemingly been sold to family offices and international investors. Woodford had hired stockbroker Numis to handle the transaction.
Woodford Investment Management, founded by fund manager Neil Woodford in 2014 after he left investment management company Invesco Perpetual, held shares in OSI through two vehicles – Patient Capital Trust and Equity Income.
The firm was one of the original backers of OSI when it was established four years ago with an initial target of $474m, though it has since grown to $800m.
Woodford has come under increasing pressure to manage liquidity due to significant outflows, struggling to keep the Equity Income fund’s unquoted exposure under the regulatory threshold of 10%.
In March, Woodford listed multiple holdings on the Guernsey stock exchange to avoid breaching the cap – a move that ratings agency Morningstar referred to as “extreme” – and declared it would eventually exit all unquoted holdings from the Equity Income fund.
Woodford, once a darling of the investment world, has faced numerous calls from investors over the past several months to deliver better returns.
Morningstar downgraded the Equity Income fund from bronze to neutral last week after its value shrunk from £10.2bn in 2017 to just £4.4bn, while St James’ Place, the largest wealth manager in the UK, put the firm on its watchlist after a prolonged poor performance.
Neither Woodford nor OSI have commented on the development.
