LF Equity Income Fund Settlement Scheme
Welcome to the website for the LF Equity Income Fund (formerly the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund – ‘the WEIF’) Settlement Scheme (the Scheme). The Scheme will create a Settlement Fund of up to £230 million, that will be used to make payments to relevant investors that hold shares in the WEIF. ‘Relevant investors’ are referred to as ‘Scheme Creditors’ in the Scheme Rules.
The site will be updated with relevant announcements and documents as the Scheme progresses.
The deadline for submitting a Voting Form was 5 p.m. (London time) on 4 December 2023. This deadline has now passed. If you have submitted a Voting Form by this deadline, but you wish to change your vote, you will be able to do so up until the start of the Scheme Meeting on 13 December 2023 by calling the Scheme helpline on +44 20 3991 0224 (local rates apply).
Further information about the Scheme to help you vote
The deadline for submitting a Voting Form was 5 p.m. (London time) on 4 December 2023. This deadline has now passed. If you have submitted a Voting Form by this deadline, but you wish to change your vote, you will be able to do so up until the start of the Scheme Meeting on 13 December 2023 by calling the Scheme helpline on +44 20 3991 0224 (local rates apply).
What does the LF Equity Income Fund Settlement Scheme do?
The Scheme will settle any claims that relevant investors may have against Link Fund Solutions Limited (LFSL), in return for a payment out of the Settlement Fund. LFSL is the authorised corporate director of the WEIF.
There is a film available on this site to help you understand what is a Scheme of Arrangement. You can watch it here.
LFSL believes the Scheme is the best outcome for investors. The Scheme provides for the maximum amount possible to be paid from LFSL as all of LFSL’s available assets will be put into the Settlement Fund. There will also be a material voluntary contribution from LFSL’s ultimate parent Link Administration Holdings Limited (Link Group) that will not be made if the Scheme does not become effective. If the Scheme is not approved, investors are not guaranteed to receive anything at all and it could be many years before any dispute is resolved.
The FCA has stated that, if approved: “the Scheme offers investors substantially more than is otherwise available from LFSL alone and more than would be achieved by any other means, given the contribution by Link Group.”
To read the full FCA announcement on the Scheme from 19th April 2023, please see here.
Investors’ Committee and Investor Advocate
To help ensure that the Scheme is fair to all investors, an Investors’ Committee was established to act independently of LFSL and to represent the interests and views of those investors affected. The Chairman of the Investors’ Committee, Jamie Drummond Smith, provided a report on the views of the Committee in respect of the Scheme on 5 October 2023, which can be found here. Watch Jamie discussing the Scheme and the Committee’s conclusion that it offers a better outcome than the alternatives and that the Committee supports it here.
LFSL has also appointed Joe Bannister as an independent Investor Advocate. His role is to help investors by answering any general questions that they may have about the Scheme and also take their feedback on the Scheme and discuss it with LFSL. Joe is an experienced lawyer.
To contact the Investor Advocate with comments and questions please email josephbannisterIA@dacbeachcroft.com. Please note that he cannot answer questions about someone’s individual investments.