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Investors Lining Up Legal Battle With Woodford, Telegraph Says

Investors Lining Up Legal Battle With Woodford, Telegraph Says

(Bloomberg) -- Litigation funders are lining up to support the legal battle against disgraced U.K. fund manager Neil Woodford, the Telegraph said.

London-based Augusta is in talks with several law firms investigating such claims, the paper said, citing managing director Louis Young. Slater & Gordon Ltd. were contacted by angry Woodford investors last week, while another firm has had more than 500 inquiries about beginning proceedings against the fund manager. Woodford said last month he would shut down his company after being dramatically ousted from managing a fund bearing his name.

Separately, the Sunday Times reported that fund managers may also be facing a crackdown in the wake of the scandal. Asset management giants have been warned that their investments could be suspended and wound up, if they don’t dispose of riskier stocks following Woodford’s demise. The threat was issued by so-called depository companies such as Northern Trust, which safeguard and monitor the assets in funds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Longley in London at alongley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net, Lars Paulsson, Yakob Peterseil

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