Neil Woodford registers new firm in Cayman Islands – report
Disgraced stockpicker Neil Woodford has registered a new firm in the Cayman Islands as his bid to relaunch his career goes on.
According to CityWire, new firm WCM Partners, which Woodford announced two months ago, has been registered in the tax haven.
The move comes two months on from the start of the former star fund manager’s fall from grace, as Woodford Equity Income Fund was suspended with £3.7bn in savers’ money trapped inside.
The decision to register in the Cayman Islands comes after Jersey’s financial services regulator criticised Woodford’s comeback attempt.
The trading name WCM Partners had been reserved in the Jersey Registry, raising expectations that the stockpicker would try and register the firm there.
But the Jersey Financial Services Commission said the island could not be used as a “back door” for Woodford to relaunch his career.
Speaking to the Financial Times, the regulator’s director-general Martin Moloney said: “Anyone who gets off the plane thinking that Jersey is a soft touch has wasted the price of the ticket. Jersey is not the place to come if you are trying to get around UK regulation, or any other regulation for that matter”.
Woodford’s new entity will focus on biotech stocks such as Oxford Nanopore.
City PM has contacted the firm for comment.