Investors holding more than two thirds of Schroders Capital Global Innovation applied to sell their shares in this month’s tender offer.
The £37m tender offer of Schroders Capital Global Innovation (INOV) was oversubscribed by more than three times as investors leaped at the chance to exit the former Woodford Patient Capital Trust at asset value.
The £114m investment trust trading 35% below net asset value this morning said holders of over 542m shares, or 67.1%, applied to sell in the tender offer approved by shareholders on 10 July.
That compares to the 173.2m shares the company had announced it would purchase at 21.1p, close to their NAV, and above their 14.2p market price at yesterday’s close. That represents 21.4% of the shares, meaning INOV will shrink to around £90m.
As a result of the oversubscription, investors who tried to sell more than their basic allowance of 21.4% will have just 2.9% of their excess applications sold.
This is the first of a series of distributions INOV will make as it sells assets and wind downs the portfolio in the next few years after shareholders voted to discontinue the company in February.
For any original shareholders who backed the then record £800m launch under former manager Neil Woodford 10 years ago, it has been a dismal experience with the shares losing 86% of their value.
They have dropped from 39p since December 2019 when Schroders took over management after the collapse of Woodford’s business and his resignation. Returns have been weighed down by the poor performance of many of the former manager’s legacy holdings, although the current managers are positive about prospects for the life science and fintech investments they have made.
