As in­vestor con­fi­dence crum­bles fol­low­ing fund sus­pen­sion, Neil Wood­ford faces back­lash on fees

Crit­ics are pil­ing in on Neil Wood­ford af­ter he sus­pend­ed his main fund in a des­per­ate at­tempt to halt re­demp­tions, with man­age­ment fees emerg­ing as a light­ning rod.

Cit­ing re­ports that the Wood­ford Eq­ui­ty In­come Fund is still tak­ing in £100,000 in fees a day, MP Nicky Mor­gan — chair of the trea­sury com­mit­tee — called on Wood­ford to waive the fees while he shifts his port­fo­lio fur­ther away from pri­vate com­pa­nies. The strat­e­gy, Wood­ford had said, is to re­duce the fund’s ex­po­sure to illiq­uid and un­quot­ed se­cu­ri­ties down to ze­ro.

“The sus­pen­sion of trad­ing has pro­vid­ed Mr. Wood­ford with some breath­ing room to fix his fund; he should af­ford his in­vestors the same space and waive the fund’s fees while the fund is sus­pend­ed,” she said in a state­ment.

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