The British regulator’s fine is on top of $521 million already ordered to be kept aside, as fallout from a Woodford fund collapse piles up.
Link Group’s British subsidiary has been hit with an extra £50 million fine by a British financial regulatorLink told the ASX on Wednesday that Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority had issued its British subsidiary Link Fund Solutions with a draft warning notice in its settlement decision procedures on the Woodford funds investigation, assessing an appropriate penalty as £50 million.
Link shares slipped 4.6 per cent to $3.28 by 11.20am AEST on the ASX, adding to the steep declines in the share price since September 8, when Link was at $4.58. Two British law firms, Leigh Day and Harcus Parker, are pursuing Link Fund Solutions through British courts in a separate class action, on behalf of 20,000 retail investors. It comes more than three years after Link Fund SolutionsIn early 2019, Neil Woodford tried to mask how illiquid his funds had become, but investors cottoned on and rushed to redeem their holdings, causing the WEIF to crash in May that year.