Woodford Investment Management Ltd. pointed to "a momentum-driven market" as the cause for the "disappointingly" negative return delivered by its suspended flagship LF Woodford Equity Income Fund in the first half, noting that the market "is the anti-thesis of our fundamentally-anchored investment approach."
Neil Woodford, who oversees investments in the group, blocked redemptions from the fund in June amid growing client withdrawals.
The fund's lack of exposure to basic materials, oil and gas, consumer goods and large financial groups such as HSBC Holdings PLC was responsible for a significant proportion of its underperformance, Woodford said in an interim report.
Link Fund Solutions Ltd., the authorized administrator of the fund, recently decided to continue the suspension of the fund until early December, saying the move remains in the interests of all investors.
