Woodford Plans Job Cuts as Pressure Mounts After Fund Freeze

(Bloomberg) -- Neil Woodford is preparing to reduce headcount as the assets run by the embattled British money manager shrink.

“We have reluctantly entered into redundancy consultations with a number of staff to advise them that their roles are at risk,” Oxford, England-based Woodford Investment Management said in a statement Wednesday, without providing details on the potential extent of the cuts.

The firm employed about 45 people at the end of March last year. Woodford, a famed fund manager who built a name for himself at Invesco Perpetual, has seen backers flee after he took a surprise decision last month to block investors from taking their money out of his flagship fund. He extended the lockdown on Monday with no timetable for lifting it.

While LF Woodford Equity Income Fund remains frozen, investors have taken money from his smaller fund. Total assets have dropped by more than half since the peak of 17 billion pounds ($21 billion) in 2017.

Citywire reported the potential cuts earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nishant Kumar in London at nkumar173@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, Marion Dakers, Patrick Henry

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