Woodford fund suspensions | Fidelity (2024)

Update as of 27th March 2024

Compensation payment to be paid to Investors from 28th March

Link Fund Solutions Limited (LFSL) have provided an update that an Initial payment to investors will be made from the 28th March. Once this payment has been received by Fidelity, it will be distributed to individual client accounts, which is likely to be completed within one week of this date.

As previously communicated by letter to all clients in March, a copy of which can be see within the Documents section of your Fidelity online account, the payment will be credited to your Fidelity account as cash, enabling you to decide what to do with the money.

Once the payment has been made, you will be able to see the amount paid by logging in and viewing your transactions history and also in your next Quarterly Statement and Valuation. We will also write to you confirming the amount paid, during April.

The amount that will be paid per share held is detailed below and you can see how many shares you hold and of which share class, by viewing your latest Statement or Online.

Initial Payment - distribution rates per share:

Further details about the scheme can be found at https://lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/ and the full announcement here.

Update as of 6^th March2024

Settlement Scheme now fully effective - Compensation payments expected from April onwards

Link Fund Solutions Limited (LFSL) has announced that the scheme of arrangement is now fully effective. It is expected that the first distributions in respect of the compensation scheme will be made from April 2024 onwards.

It may take several weeks for these payments to be made and paid to individual client accounts. The payments will be paid into your Fidelity account as cash, enabling you to decide what to do with the money. The amount that will be paid per payment and per share held has not been published by the scheme, so at this stage, we cannot confirm the amount you are due to receive.

Further details about the scheme can be found at https://lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/ and the full announcement here.

Update as of 12^th February 2024

Settlement Scheme now approved by the Court, enabling payments to be made to investors

The scheme that investors had previously voted in favour of, has been sanctioned (i.e approved) by The High Court on the 9th of February. This approval of the settlement scheme will enable payments to be made to Investors in the fund, with payments expected to be made from April 2024 onwards.

Please note, no further timings have been made available and if any appeals are brought against the sanction of the scheme, this could delay the payments to scheme creditors (i.e fund investors).

The scheme is expected to become fully effective by 2nd March 2024 and an initial payment is expected from April 2024 onwards. It may take several weeks for these payments to be made and paid to individual client accounts. The payments will be paid into your Fidelity account as cash, enabling you to decide what to do with the money. The amount that will be paid per payment and per share held has not been published by the scheme, so at this stage, we cannot confirm the amount you are due to receive.

We will write to all investors shortly with more details and also, once payment has been made to your Fidelity account, provide confirmation of the amount received.

Compensation Scheme Approved

Link Fund Solutions Limited (LFSL) announced that the Scheme was approved by the required majority of Scheme Creditors who attended and voted (in person or by proxy) at a meeting of Scheme Creditors held on 13 December 2023.

Scheme Creditors who support the Scheme or who otherwise do not wish to oppose LFSL's application to Court for an order sanctioning the Scheme do not need to take any further action. The next stage is to seek formal approval for the scheme at a court hearing on the 18th January 2024. LFSL will announce the result of the Sanction Hearing on the Scheme Website (available at: www.lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/).

Scheme Creditors or other persons who wish to make submissions at the Sanction Hearing should refer to the Convening Order, which is available on the Scheme Website at https://lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/documents/.

Further details about the scheme can be found at https://lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/ you can also contact the number 020 3991 0224 for more information.

Update as of 20thOctober 2023

Compensation Scheme Voting Open

Further details have now been made available by the scheme, including an opportunity for investors to vote on the proposal settlement scheme. Investors don’t have to vote if they choose not to, and any compensation would still be paid out to all investors, regardless of whether they exercise their right to vote or not. For details on how you can vote, please visit: https://lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/ There are alternative ways to do this, such as by post, please contact the number 020 3991 0224 for more information.

Investors can also call the number for all questions and support required when voting.

Support Number 020 3991 0224

There is a short video created to summarise the proposal at www.lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/films/

All votes need to be submitted by the 4th December 2023 to the scheme.

Update as of 11^th October 2023

Update on Convening Hearing:

As announced on 5 October 2023, a hearing was held yesterday (10 October 2023) in the High Court to consider an application by Link Fund Solutions Limited ("LFSL") to convene a meeting of creditors (the "Scheme Creditors") to consider LFSL's proposed scheme of arrangement (the "Scheme"). The hearing will continue on Thursday, 12 October (likely at 10:30am, but this has not yet been confirmed). Scheme Creditors who wish to attend the hearing are advised to check the Daily Court List (available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-and-property-courts-rolls-building-cause-list) from 4pm onwards on Wednesday, 11 October. LFSL will also update this website with details of the hearing once known.

Opportunity to comment on draft Scheme Documents

The Court has directed LFSL to share the documents submitted to Court as part of the Convening Hearing. Links to download these documents are set out below. In addition, the Court has directed LFSL to give Scheme Creditors an opportunity to consider, and comment on, the draft Voting Form, the draft Explanatory Statement, the draft Scheme Rules and the draft Scheme Notice before the Court reconvenes on Thursday, 12 October. Scheme Creditors who wish to comment on the draft Scheme Documents are requested to send their comments to LFSL by email to [email protected] by no later than 6pm (UK time) on Wednesday 11 October. LFSL will consider comments received before this time and, if appropriate, update the documents accordingly.

 The following documents are available to download on the Scheme Website (https://lfwoodfordfundscheme.com/):

• Convening Hearing Bundle (PDF): Contains all of the documents submitted to Court by LFSL on Thursday, 5 October

• Supplemental Hearing Bundle (PDF): Contains all of the documents submitted to Court by LFSL on Tuesday, 10 October

• Draft voting form (Word document): The Voting Form is the form that Scheme Creditors (or their Authorised Representatives) are required to complete and return to LFSL, in order to attend and/or vote at the Scheme Meeting

• Draft Explanatory Statement (Word document): The Explanatory Statement explains the reasons why the Scheme is being proposed, summarises the key terms of the Scheme, and sets out what will likely happen if the Scheme is not implemented

• Draft Scheme Rules (Word document): The Scheme Rules set out the terms of the compromise or arrangement that will bind LFSL and the Scheme Creditors, if the Scheme is implemented

  See Also

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• Notice of the Scheme Meeting (Word document): This is the notice informing Scheme Creditors of the time and place of the meeting to consider and vote on the Scheme

• The formal launch of the Scheme;
• Key terms of the Scheme; and
• Details of the first Court hearing in relation to the Scheme. At the first Court hearing the Court will consider certain preliminary issues in respect of the Scheme and be asked for permission to hold a meeting of Investors to vote on the Scheme.

We’ll publish more details when we have them, but payment is not expected before October 2023 at the earliest.

You can find full details of the latest update on the fund in the official letter.

Update as of 21 November 2022

LF Equity Income Fund fifth payment details

We would like to advise you that the 5th capital distribution has now been paid into cash within your account. Distribution rates are shown below:

LF Equity Income Fund fifth payment details

Update as of 6 October 2022

LF Equity Income Fund fifth payment details

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director of LF Equity Income Fund, has announced that it plans to make the fifth capital distribution to investors and will write to investors in early November with further details.

Once the date has been confirmed, it should take a couple of business days to process this payment, and as with the previous distributions, the value will depend on the number of shares held by each investor. The amount will be calculated on this date.

We will be writing to all our customers invested in this fund to confirm when the payment has been made to their account.

You can read the official statement for more details.

Update as of 15 March 2022

LF Equity Income Fund

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director of the LF Equity Income Fund, has provided an update on the fund’s wind up. It’s also provided additional information on the company’s annual audited accounts which were published on 31 March 2022. A copy of the accounts, which cover 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, can be found on Link’s website.

We appreciate that this continues to be a difficult time for investors. Link Fund Solutions want to reassure investors that they’re taking every possible step to act in your best interests in returning any cash at the earliest opportunity, while trying to avoid selling off assets at heavily discounted prices. Link is also looking to protect the value of the fund’s remaining investments by making limited investments in certain companies.

You can find further updates on the income distributions to date, the status of the remaining portfolio and a general update on fees in the official statement.

You can find further updates on the income distributions to date, the status of the remaining portfolio and a general update on fees in the official statement.

Update as of 11th December 2020

LF Equity Income Fund fourth payment details

We would like to advise you that the 4th capital distribution has now been paid into cash within your account. Distribution rates are shown below:

LF Equity Income Fund fourth payment details

Update as of 30 November 2020

LF Equity Income Fund fourth payment details

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director of LF Equity Income Fund, has announced that it plans to make the fourth capital distribution to investors on or around 11 December.

It should take a couple of business days to process this payment, and as with the previous distributions, the value will depend on the number of shares held by each investor. The amount will be calculated on this date.

We will be writing to all our customers invested in this fund to confirm when the payment has been made to their account.

You can read the official statement for more details.

Update as of 30 September 2020

LF Equity Income Fund

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director of LF Equity Income Fund, has announced that it intends to make a fourth capital distribution to investors after 30 November 2020, and now expects to finish winding up the fund by mid to late 2021.

As of 1 September 2020, the fund’s remaining assets were valued at £288m, following the first three capital distributions to investors which totalled £2,450,413,379.

The ACD also disclosed the fees paid from the fund prior to - and following - the start of the winding-up period, which began on 17 January 2020. No annual management charges were applied to the fund after 18 January 2020, though other charges were applied to pay the companies that were engaged in relation to selling the assets.

You can read the official statement for more details.

Update as of 20August 2020

LF Equity Income Fundthird payment details

Link Fund Solutions, theAuthorised Corporate Director of LF Equity Income Fund, hasannounced the amount to be paid as part of thethirdcapital distribution for this fund. The amount per share that will be paid to investors is shown in the table below, and will vary by share class.The payout should appear as cash in investors' accounts within a week of the distribution. When this happens, we'll be writing to all our customers invested in this fund to confirm when the payment has been made to their account. It's likely this will be toward the end of August.

You can find which share classes you hold and the number of shares in each by logging in and checking your account summary page.

Update as of 3rd August2020

LF Equity Income Fund announces third payment

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director of the LF Equity Income Fund, has announced that it plans to make a third capital distribution.

The total amount available for capital distribution will be announced on or around 19 August 2020. We will be writing to customers shortly after that with details of how much they will receive as their share of the total capital distribution, along with the payment date.

Following the distribution, investors will continue to hold the same number of shares in the fund, but the value of them will be correspondingly lower, and further payments will follow until all assets are realised.

You can read the official statement for full details of this announcement.

Update as of 23rd March 2020

LF Equity Income Fund second payment

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director of LF Equity Income Fund, has announced the amount to be paid as part of the second capital distribution for this fund. The amount per share that will be paid to investors is shown in the table below, and will vary by share class. The payout should appear as cash in investors' accounts within a week of the distribution. When this happens, we will be writing to all our customers invested in this fund to confirm when the payment has been made to their account. Link has not yet announced when the payment will be made.

You can find which share classes you hold and the number of shares in each by logging in and checking your account summary page.

Update as of 13 March 2020

LF Equity Income Fund second payment

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director of the LF Equity Income Fund, has announced that it plans to make the second capital distribution payment around 25 March 2020.

It should take a couple of business days to process this payment, and as with the previous one, the value will depend on the number of shares held by each investor. The amount will be calculated on 18 March.

Following the distribution, investors will continue to hold the same number of shares in the fund, but the value of them will be correspondingly lower, and further payments will follow until all assets are realised.

We will be writing to all our customers invested in this fund to confirm when the payment has been made to their account.

If you require any further guidance or information, please contact your financial adviser, or you can read the official statement for full details of this announcement.

Update as of 13 February 2020

LF ASI Income Focus Fund re-opening date and fee waiver details

The LF ASI Income Focus Fund, formerly known as the LF Woodford Income Focus Fund, will re-open for trading purposes on 13 February 2020. The first valuation of the share price will be available once the fund has started trading at midday on 13 February.

To offset associated costs with the repositioning of the fund, the authorised corporate director of the fund, Link Fund Solutions, together with the fund manager Aberdeen Standard and the depositary Northern Trust, have all waived their feesfrom 20 Dec 2019 until 31May 2020.

You can read theofficial statementfor full details of this announcement.

Update as of 03 February 2020

LF Equity Income Fund first payment confirmation

Payments from the first capital distribution of the closure of theLF Equity Income Fund have now been made to our customers. If you hold shares in this fund with us then you can log in to fidelity.co.uk to see how much has been paid to you. The amount that has been paid per share is shown in the table below, and varies by share class.

Update as of 28 January 2020

LF Equity Income Fund first payment

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) of LF Equity Income Fund, has announced the amount to be paid as part of the first capital distribution for this fund. The amount per share that will be paid to investors is shown in the table below, and will vary by share class. The payout should appear as cash in investors' accounts within a week of the distribution, which is planned on or around 30 January. Starting next week, we will be writing to all our customers invested in this fund to confirm when the payment has been made to their account.

You can find which share classes you hold and the number of shares in each by logging in and checking your account summary page.

You can read the official statement for full details of this announcement.

Update as of 10 Jan 2020

LF Equity Income Fund closure and dates

The date of the capital distribution for the LF Equity Income Fund has been moved back to the end of January by the fund's Authorised Corporate Director (ACD), Link Fund Solutions.

This follows the approval by the Financial Conduct Authority in December for the ACD to close the fund, and means that the first capital distribution will be paid out on or around 30 January, instead of 20 January as originally planned.

The payout should appear as cash in investors' accounts about three working days after the distribution. As previously noted (below) the value of this capital distribution will depend on the number of shares held by each investor. Following the distribution, investors will continue to hold the same number of shares in the fund, but the value of them will be correspondingly lower.

You can read the official statementfor full details of this announcement.

Update as of 20December 2019

LF Woodford Income Focus Fund new management

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) of the LF Woodford Income Focus Fund, announced that it has appointed Aberdeen Standard Life Investments Ltd as the investment manager of this fund. Aberdeen will replace Woodford as the investment manager on 31 December 2019, and the fund will be renamed accordingly to the LF ASI Income Focus Fund.

Aberdeen intends to re-position the fund’s portfolio in a way it considers will best add value for investors, and will actively seek to grow the assets in the fund and to attract additional investments.

The ACD believes that based on assurances it has received from Aberdeen, the best interests of investors (those who wish to retain their holding and those who wish to redeem their holding) will be met by re-opening the fund. The ACD expects to provide an update on progress in January 2020, with a date for when it expects to resume dealing in the fund.

Aberdeen, the ACD and the depositary (Northern Trust Global Services SE) will waive their fees until 31 May 2020, though some additional portfolio transaction costs will be incurred as a result of selling and buying assets to re-position the fund.

You can read the official statement for full details of this announcement.

Update as of 13 December 2019

FCA approval of LF Woodford Equity Income Fund renaming and closure

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) of the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund, announced that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has given approval for the name change and closing of the fund.

This means that the fund is now called the LF Equity Income Fund with immediate effect, and the winding up will begin on 18 January. Payment of the first capital distribution is anticipated around 20 January (now updated to 30 January - see above), and will be based on the number of shares held by each investor. Continued payments will follow until all assets are realised.

The ACD has not yet confirmed the payment amounts; we will inform our clients of these as soon as the ACD confirms them.

You can read the official statement for full details of this announcement.

Update as of24 October 2019

Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc

The Board of Woodford Patient Capital Trust confirmed that Schroder Investment Management will take over the Woodford Patient Capital Trust by the end of the year.

The investment company will be renamed Schroder UK Public Private Trust plc. There will be no change to the company's existing investment objective and policy.

On appointment, Schroders will not take a management fee for three months. Further details to come following Schroders' formal appointment. You can read the official statement for full details of this announcement.

Update as of 16 October 2019

LF Woodford Income Focus Fund suspension

Link Fund Solutions, the Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) of the LF Woodford Income Focus Fund, has decided to suspend dealing in shares in this fund, with effect from 15 October 2019 and until further notice. This means you will no longer be able to buy or sell shares in this fund.

We restricted new investments in the Woodford Income Focus Fund in June, because we felt this was in the best interests of our customers. That restriction remains; you will now not be able to invest in this fund through other investment platforms either.

The ACD decided to suspend this fund following the resignation of the fund's manager, Woodford Investment Management. The ACD believes this resignation would result in it being unable to meet redemption requests without prejudicing the interests of both remaining and redeeming investors.

The ACD believes the suspension is in the best interests of investors and during the suspension will consider the options available, including the appointment of an alternative investment manager, a scheme of arrangement into another fund or a winding-up of the fund.

The suspension will cease as soon as the ACD determines the course of action that is in the best interests of investors. The ACD will formally review the suspension at least every 28 days and expects to provide an update within the next 14 days.

You can read the official statement for full details of this announcement.

Update as of 15 October 2019

Woodford Patient Capital Trust plc management

Woodford Investment Management announced that it will cease its role as portfolio manager of the Woodford Patient Capital Trust in January 2020.

The trust remains open for buys, sells and switches. Any regular savings plans and regular withdrawal plans linked to the trust will continue as usual.

The trust's board is in advanced discussions relating to the ongoing management of the portfolio and expects to announce details of the new management shortly.

As an investment trust, this is a different type of investment from LF Woodford Equity Income and LF Woodford Income Focus. Its shares are traded between investors on a secondary exchange. This means the fund manager does not have to dispose of holdings because an investor has decided to sell shares.

LF Woodford Equity Income Fund closure

Link Fund Solutions, the ACD of the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund, announced that it intends to close the Woodford Equity Income Fund by selling the assets and returning the proceeds to investors.

The decision is subject to approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Pending that approval, Link expects to start winding up the fund on 17 January 2020.

Proceeds will then be placed into cash in clients’ existing accounts as interim payments, which will then be available for reinvestment.

Link expects to start winding up the fund on 17 January 2020.

Link made the decision after a careful review of the fund and its holdings indicated that the repositioning of the portfolio did not provide reasonable certainty as to when the fund could be re-opened.

Woodford Investment Management will cease to be the investment manager of the fund, effective immediately. The fund will also be renamed as the LF Equity Income Fund.

You can read the official Q&A for full details of this announcement..