Woodford and Newman shared dividends of £13.8m before closure
Neil Woodford and Craig Newman received dividends totalling £13.8m in the 12 months to the end of March 2019, as Woodford Investment Management faced a growing crisis that ultimately led to its closure in October last year.
According to accounts filed by Woodford Investment Management yesterday (6 January) for the 12-month period, interim dividends amounting to £13.8m were paid to Woodford Capital, an unlimited company controlled by its directors.
Fund manager Woodford owned 65% of the company, while the other 35% was owned by Newman, meaning the two directors took home around £9m and £4.8m respectively.
The company reported profits after tax for the year to end of March of £16.2m, significantly lower than the £33.7m profit it made in 2018.
The filing on Companies House also revealed operating profit for the year ended 31 March 2019 fell to £18.3m, from £41.7m the previous year.
The financial statement showed the number of employees at the company had grown from 45 at the end of March 2018, to 51 at the end of March 2019.
The Woodford Equity Income fund was suspended in June last year, never to re-open, following a prolonged period of underperformance that was met with a wave of redemptions.
Woodford stated that he would cut unquoted holdings in the fund to under 10% of the portfolio after it emerged the fund had breached UCITS limits on unquoted positions several times.
This article was first published by Investment Week, a sister title to International Investment
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