Star manager Neil Woodford set to launch new higher-yielding fund
Britain’s best known fund manager Neil Woodford is set to launch a new fund focused on higher returns for investors, according to reports.
The CF Woodford Income Focus fund will invest in more foreign stocks in an attempt to offer investors a yield 20 per cent higher than the FTSE All-Share index over a five-year period.
The fund will only invest in listed companies, but will not be geographically constrained. The manager will aim to deliver an income to investors of 5p per share in 2018.
In 2014 Woodford quit Invesco Perpetual, where at one point he ran more than £30bn, to start his own fund manager, Woodford Investment Management.
There are currently four funds offered by the company, with onshore and offshore versions of the flagship as well as a “patient capital” fund that aims to invest in the “best of British”, according to the company’s website.
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Since then assets have grown steadily to reach £14.8bn at 30 June 2016.
Woodford’s flagship CF Woodford Equity Income Fund has an equity return of over 28 per cent, according to the company’s website.
The Equity Income fund is 86 per cent invested in UK with a heavy weighting towards healthcare.
The fund reported a “difficult year” as the election of Donald Trump hit healthcare stocks and Capita and G4S disappointed.
A spokesperson for the manager said: “Woodford Investment Management confirms that it intends to launch the CF Woodford Income Focus Fund in March 2017, with a fixed-offer period. The dates will be confirmed in due course."