Bloomberg Europe Edition
Woodford Fund Liability Threatens Dye & Durham’s Australia Deal
By Derek Decloet
12 September 2022 at 5:37 pm GMT+2
The collapse of Neil Woodford’s fund in 2019 has thrown a wrench into a Canadian firm’s proposed $1.7 billion acquisition of Australia’s Link Administration Holdings Ltd.
Toronto-based Dye & Durham Ltd. said Monday that UK regulators won’t approve the deal unless it agrees to cover restitution or other liabilities related to Link’s role in the Woodford blowup, to a maximum of £306 million ($358 million).
Dye & Durham said it’s assessing the impact of that demand made by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. If it can’t accept those terms, then the Link deal might not be able to meet the conditions for closing, the company said in a statement. Dye & Durham was up 1% to C$14.83 at 10:51 a.m. in Toronto.
Link was the fund administrator on the LFWoodford Equity Income Fund, which was liquidated nearly three years ago asWoodford, one of the UK’s most celebrated stock pickers, was ousted as itsmanager. The FCA began an investigation into Link in 2019 as the fund wasbeginning to unravel, according to Dye & Durham’s statement.
