Woodford’s cold fusion gamble finishes up in 80% writedown

Neil Woodford’s controversial bet on cold fusion start-up Industrial Heat ended with a whimper on Monday after Link slashed its valuation by more than 80%.

The early-stage tech company was one of Woodford’s biggest investments and came to represent one of the most perplexing of the fallen fund manager’s esoteric bets as his empire unwound.

The science behind the technology, using small nuclear reactions to make energy, had been called into question and the firm mired in legal spats.

Today Link took an axe to the Woodford Patient Capital Trust’s stake in Industrial Heat for the second time in three months. The value was written down by 83% to less than £10 million due to a “delay in operational progress”.

In August Link wrote down the value from £88 million to £58 million.

Industrial Heat’s valuation had ballooned to 357% before Woodford’s troubles emerged, triggering concerns over his investments.

The impact of the writedown was to cut the Patient Capital Trust’s value by 4.3p, taking into account a small write-up of another unnamed stake.

Shares fell 7% down 2.6p to 35.32p.

Schroders has been appointed to manage the trust after Woodford resigned as his business imploded. It will be renamed Schroder UK Public Private Trust.