Woodford Investment Management

The equity bull run is getting long in the tooth and managers are being complacent about the rising risks, argues Stephen Lamacraft from Woodford Investment Management.

Neil Woodford has criticised his own industry for charging customers too much and paying managers too high a price for tracker-style performance, in an interview with the BBC.

Skandia has reversed its unpopular decision to close mirror versions of the Invesco Income funds after an outcry from advisers.

Demand for Neil Woodford's fund has helped make the UK equity income sector the best-selling category for a second month in a row.

Skandia has handed £640m worth of life mandates currently run by Invesco Perpetual's Mark Barnett to Neil Woodford, in a move Hargreaves Lansdown analysts suggest may be the first of many.

UK

Woodford Investment Management was the best-selling fund group by active sales in the second quarter of this year, after raising £1.6bn for its Equity Income fund.

Net retail sales of UK equity income funds hit a record high of £1.4bn last month, according to the Investment Management Association, as Neil Woodford's new fund provided a boon to the sector.

Neil Woodford's top ten holdings in his Woodford Equity Income fund contain few surprises, with AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and British American Tobacco the three largest positions.

The St James's Place UK High Income fund and two other portfolios have become the latest to exit the IMA UK Equity Income sector for failing to meet yield requirements.