Woodford ditches £23m Benchmark stake as small cap exodus accelerates

Neil Woodford on Tuesday dumped £23 million of shares in shrimp genetics firm Benchmark Holdings as the fund guru’s fire sale of stocks from his shuttered fund accelerated.

Woodford’s equity income fund, which was gated for another 28 days yesterday, cut its holding in the AIM-listed company from 12.5% to under 2%.

The 59-year-old has been one of the biggest champions of Benchmark, which is developing disease-resistant shrimp.

He backed its Cenkos-led stock market listing in 2013 and owned 20% of shares before cutting back in December.

A trade of 63 million shares in Benchmark — thought to be by Woodford and about 11% of all its shares — was recorded on Friday at 38p, records show.

That would take Woodford’s stake to about 1.5%. The sale price is 36% lower than Benchmark’s share price a year ago, underscoring the underperformance of Woodford’s stocks.

Norwegian investor Kverva Finans, which owned a small stake in Benchmark, on Tuesday disclosed a 11.4% holding in the company, suggesting it was the buyer of the shares.

The fallen fund star is selling smaller cap stocks like Benchmark to raise money to buy FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 stocks on the cheap.

Woodford has also cut a £19 million stake in biotech firm Horizon Discovery Group yesterday, reducing the fund’s holding from 7.7% of shares to under 5%.

The latest sales push the amount of cash Woodford has made from stock sales past £350 million.

Benchmark was Woodford’s 41st biggest holding, worth 0.67% of the fund on May 31, according to documents.