Woodford Equity Income kicked out of IA sector

Failed to meet yield requirments

Neil Woodford's Equity Income fund has been removed from the Investment Association's (IA) UK equity income sector having failed to meet the trade body's yield requirements.

The Investment Association requires funds to deliver a higher income than the FTSE All Share over rolling three-year periods to be included in the UK Equity Income sector. Woodford Equity Income has not achieved this, yielding 3.5% against the 3.6% average of the FTSE All Share, and is therefore moving to the UK All Companies sector. The £6.7bn fund has had a torrid time of late, on the back of a series of setbacks for holdings including AstraZeneca and Provident Financial, prompting the manager to apologise to shareholders in September. Over three years to 21 March, the Equity Inc...