Woodford Patient Capital trust reports performance turnaround in first half of 2017

Company progress started to be reflected in valuations

Manager Neil Woodford has said he is pleased the progress made by companies in his £859m Patient Capital investment trust has started to be reflected in valuations, but said performance is "insubstantial in the context of what is to come".

After a difficult start for the trust, which launched in April 2015 and invests in quoted and unquoted companies, the board reported a stronger set of results for the first six months of 2017. The trust's share price rose by 7% and its net asset value (NAV) by 8% over the period, compared to falls of 9.9% and 4.2% respectively for the whole of 2016. During the first six months of the year, the company traded at an average 5% discount to its NAV, although this has now narrowed to 0.62% according to Winterflood. Woodford's trust aims to deliver a return in excess of 10% per annum ove...