Kent recoups much of investment as fund is wound up

Kent County Council Superannuation Fund has recovered £139 million from its investment in Neil Woodford’s flagship fund, but still has around £99 million left to recoup.

The LF Equity Income Fund’s administrator Link Fund Solutions informed investors that they would be due to receive between 46.3p and 58.9p a share, depending on the share class held, as part of an initial capital distribution.

The initial return was equivalent to around three-quarters of the value of the fund at 24 January, but Link said it would be difficult to predict the timing of future distributions due to the illiquid nature of the assets yet to be sold.

In an update to investors, Link said that between 3 June 2019 – the date of the fund’s suspension – and 8 January 2020, it lost 14.9% compared with a 9.4% rise for the FTSE All-Share index.

A spokesman for the Kent County Council Superannuation Fund confirmed that it had received a letter from the administrators of the Woodford fund stating that it would receive an initial sum of £138.9 million.

“We have also been advised that further sums will be forthcoming depending on the sale of the assets of the fund,” the spokesperson said.

The Woodford investment now represents around 3% of the scheme’s total £6.6 billion assets.

In June, Kent County Council asked to withdraw all of the £263 million it had invested with the Woodford fund, following a £560 million drop in the fund’s value, but the fund did not have sufficient funds to meet the redemptions.