Woodford sells £42m stake in property REIT to Barnett - Reports

Difficult time for flagship fund

Neil Woodford has reportedly sold a £42m holding in a listed retail property company to funds managed by Mark Barnett, who took over the management of his funds at Invesco when he left the group.

According to the Financial Times, Woodford has sold shares in NewRiver REIT to Barnett, at a difficult time for Woodford Investment Management's flagship equity income fund, which has suffered outflows over the last two years. Woodford IM revealed on Wednesday that the fund's assets had fallen to £4.4bn from £4.7bn at the end of February, a 57% drop from its peak of £10.2bn in 2017. The group suffered a fresh hit last week when the Guernsey stock exchange unexpectedly suspended dealing in three of the private companies held in the portfolio, forcing the manager to shift his holdings i...