Another poor performer has been Circassia, a £264m British company developing cat allergy drugs. The shares of the company, listed on the fledgling Aim market, fell almost 70pc after drug trials failed.
Successes include another Aim-listed business, online estate agent Purple Bricks, rated a Hold by Questor on September 16 at 133p. Patient Capital invested ahead of the agency’s 100p-per-share 2015 flotation. Shares now trade at 154p.
Patient Capital is a big-bet play, even if some of the risk is moderated by holdings in a few blue-chips firms such as Glaxo and Legal & General.
The trust’s current largest holding (a huge 17pc of the portfolio) is in Prothena, an $1.8bn company listed on Nasdaq. Shares have risen more 50pc this year in sterling terms.
Mr Woodford has built a specialist knowledge of biotech, finance and other sectors during his career. He has enviable networks within universities and other research centres from which many potentially valuable technologies originate.
His close involvement in the portfolio is likely to be crucial to its continued success.
The trust is admirably transparent about its holdings and has an attractive fee structure. It charges a small fee to cover trading costs – around 0.18pc per year – but otherwise Woodford takes no money unless the trust delivers the hoped-for 10pc return per year. Once it meets that hurdle, the firm takes 15pc of any return above that.
The trust’s current 5pc discount is eyecatching, especially given that at the height of its popularity this trust was trading at a 15pc premium.
Provided its concentrated, high-conviction style and long-term nature is taken into account, at this price it is worth a close look.
Questor says: Tentative Buy
Ticker: WPCT
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