As in­vestors soured on his bets, records show Wood­ford paid him­self hand­some div­i­dends

Ahead of the im­plo­sion of his flag­ship fund and his rep­u­ta­tion as one of the UK’s most savvi­est stock pick­ers, Neil Wood­ford paid him­self and his busi­ness part­ner £13.8 mil­lion in div­i­dends in the year lead­ing up to the im­passe.

For the pe­ri­od be­tween April 1, 2018, to March 31, 2019 — Wood­ford In­vest­ment Man­age­ment made a post-tax prof­it of about £16.3 mil­lion, records post­ed on Com­pa­nies House on Mon­day show. The com­pa­ny paid Wood­ford Cap­i­tal, an un­lim­it­ed com­pa­ny owned by Wood­ford (with a 65% stake) and his busi­ness part­ner Craig New­man (with the re­main­ing 35% stake) £13.8 mil­lion in div­i­dends (£9 mil­lion and £4.8 mil­lion, re­spec­tive­ly).

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