Woodford's high-profile new picks: L&G, Thomas Cook and Ladbrokes

Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford is backing the Thomas Cook turnaround story, Investment Week can reveal, and has bought his first FTSE 100 financial since the crisis.

The manager of Invesco Perpetual’s £14bn High Income and £11bn Income funds added Thomas Cook and Legal & General to the portfolio earlier this year. Woodford held over 19m Thomas Cook shares in High Income, a stake worth £25m, as well as 2 million Legal & General shares worth £3.4m at the end of Q2 2013. Close to collapse two years ago, Thomas Cook shares have risen by around 1,000% during the past year, to a current level of 156p, as investors back a three-year turnaround plan. The stock, which does not currently pay a dividend, is a favourite among some of the manager’s Invesco ...