NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[hyperopia]

ASI may be the source of the recent selling pressure:

Aberdeen Standard reveals radical overhaul of Woodford fund ahead of reopening
New managers have dumped nine of Woodford’s top 10 stock-picks and pivoted the Income Focus fund toward larger, more liquid companies
By Mark Cobley February 12, 2020 2:18 pm GMT

https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/aberdeen-standard-reveals-radical-overhaul-of-woodford-fund-ahead-of-re-opening-20200212

Aberdeen Standard Investments, which took over Neil Woodford’s £250m Income Focus fund at the end of last year, has pivoted the fund away from consumer stocks and financials and dropped many of his largest holdings.

ASI updated investors on the management of the fund on 11 February, ahead of its official reopening on the 13th, when retail buyers will be able to buy in and out again.

The duo now in charge of the portfolio, Thomas Moore and Charles Luke, said they had diversified its sector bets, improved its liquidity and “sold down structurally challenged companies”.

The fund has underperformed its benchmark during the transition period, gaining 1.4% between 31 October and 12 February while the FTSE All-Share gained 5.1%, according to figures from FE Analytics. The new managers said this was partly due to the costs of shifting the portfolio, and partly due to the “poor performance of certain inherited holdings”.

Only one of Woodford’s top 10 holdings has made it into the new portfolio, with notable casualties including doorstep lender Provident Financial and housebuilders Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey, whose shares have been weighed down by Brexit-related fears for the UK economy. Moore and Luke have held onto Bovis Homes, however, Woodford’s second-largest pick, now known as Vistry Group after an acquisition announced in January.

One of Woodford’s top holdings, the Honeycomb Investment Trust, proved a particular challenge for the new managers to sell, they said. “This is a highly illiquid stock with a significant ongoing overhang from large shareholders perceived by the market to be likely sellers. As such, it was necessary to place the stock at a discount to the prevailing market price.”
They also picked out retailer Card Factory as another poor performer, which had been in Woodford’s top 10. The stock “contributed circa 1.23% of [the fund’s] underperformance as a result of a profit warning due to poor Christmas trading — a development which reinforced our conviction that this stock did not merit an ongoing place in the portfolio”.

Moore and Luke have significantly diversified the portfolio and increased its liquidity. Before the transition, 70% of its money was held in large and mid-cap stocks, a spokesman said, with the remainder held in harder-to-sell smaller companies. As of now, that proportion has increased to 97%.

Last October, 35% of the money in Woodford’s fund was invested in consumer-goods companies — a category that included the housebuilders — and another 35% was invested in financial stocks, like Provident, and UK banking group RBS.

Under Aberdeen’s management, the new-look fund has 18.2% of its money in financials, with a notable exposure to UK merchant bank Close Brothers, and 17.6% in consumer discretionary stocks. It has also put a big bet on industrials, with 20.8% of the portfolio — a sector where Woodford had investments worth 13% of the fund.

In their update, Moore and Luke wrote: “We see a range of well-capitalised UK domestic stocks with the potential to perform strongly following a long period of subdued investor sentiment, including Close Brothers, SSE and Assura.

“Alongside these domestic holdings, which are now all held in the portfolio, we see potential for internationally exposed stocks with robust dividend prospects such as Coca-Cola Hellenic, Tui Group and Ashmore. Similarly, these three companies are now part of the repositioned portfolio.”

In a statement alongside Aberdeen’s, the fund’s administrator Link Fund Solutions confirmed the Income Focus fund would reopen to dealing on 13 February, as expected. Investors have been able to submit requests to buy and sell shares from 12pm today.