Trustnet Magazine Issue 17 April 2016 | Page 5

/ WOODFORD PATIENT CAPITAL / D THINGS E TO THOSE WAIT trustnetdirect.com 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% -5% IT UK All Companies (-2.43%) -10% Woodford - Patient Capital Trust (-7.25%) -15% Apr Mar Feb Jan 16 Dec Nov Oct Sep Aug -20% Jul “Clearly, we would prefer to be reporting on a period of positive progress for the portfolio in NAV terms, but it is still very early days for this long-term strategy and performance should be viewed in the context of the overall market environment since launch,” Woodford said in his manager statement which accompanied the annual results. “The performance of the trust should not correlate closely to that of the broader UK stock market in the long term, but the quoted element of the portfolio and, in particular, our large cap positions are exposed to the slings and arrows of market sentiment which, in the period under review, turned increasingly negative.” PERFORMANCE OF TRUST VS SECTOR SINCE LAUNCH Jun EARLY DAYS “In particular, our large cap positions are exposed to the slings and arrows of market sentiment” May 15 to a discount at the start of the year, before climbing back to its current 1.8 per cent premium. On a share price basis, since launch to 1 April, data from FE shows the trust is down 7.25 per cent. In a further “blow” to Woodford, the board of the trust decided against raising any more capital for the time being, after citing the current level of uncertainty in global markets. This was despite the fact the manager had identified a number of potential investment opportunities. Woodford remains upbeat, however, with all the analysts who marked his one-year report card all pointing out the clue is in the name of the trust – namely, being patient. This is because approximately three-quarters of the portfolio consists of small quoted and unquoted early-stage growth companies, which makes judging him on just one year of performance a fairly meaningless exercise. The knives have been out for Woodford Patient Capital after an underwhelming first year, but Adam Lewis says the critics should reacquaint themselves with the name of the trust Source: FE Analytics 3