Hargreaves Lansdown’s Execs Forgo Bonus Amid Woodford Furor

(Bloomberg) -- Hargreaves Lansdown Plc’s top executives will forgo their bonuses this year in the wake of Neil Woodford’s decision to gate his flagship fund to investors.

Chief Financial Officer Philip Johnson, Research Director Mark Dampier, Chief Investment Officer Lee Gardhouse and Chief Executive Officer Chris Hill will not be taking bonuses for 2019, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

Hill previously volunteered to give up his bonus while Woodford’s fund remains frozen, the Daily Mail reported in June. Johnson was paid a bonus of almost 1 million pounds ($1.2 million) in 2018, while Hill received a bonus of 1.7 million pounds, according to Hargreaves Lansdown’s annual report.

A spokeswoman for Hargreaves Lansdown declined to comment.

More than 133,000 of Hargreaves’ clients have invested more than 1 billion pounds in the now-frozen LF Woodford Equity Income Fund, and the fund platform has come under intense scrutiny for its longstanding backing to the once-feted stockpicker.

Woodford’s move to freeze his flagship fund was intended to allow him to rotate out of smaller, illiquid companies and into large cap, more liquid companies. Hargreaves removed the manager’s flagship fund from one of its favorites list after it froze redemptions and also sold its stake in a smaller Woodford fund.

Hargreaves’ shares fell as much as 3.2% in London trading on Wednesday.

The Times of London reported the news earlier.

To contact the reporters on this story: Suzy Waite in London at swaite8@bloomberg.net;Lucca de Paoli in London at gdepaoli1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, James Hertling

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