Top GSK Investor Bails

May 13, 2017

British fund manager Neil Woodford said he had sold out of pharma company GlaxoSmithKline, and explained why in blog post titled “Glaxit.”

Neil Woodford, a highly-regarded fund manager in the UK, started his own fund management company in 2014.

In his recent blog post, Woodford said that investing in GSK “has been a frustrating experience, with three out of the four business units perennial under-performers.”

Woodford cited growing threats to GSK’s HIV franchise, ViiV, which, according to Woodford, has been responsible for more than half of GSK’s growth over the past three years. Woodford also noted GSK’s lack of a rich pipeline and lack of strategic options as concerns.

Additionally, Woodford mentioned a “misalignment” between Glaxo and its shareholders. “My viewpoint, and that of other like-minded institutional investors, has been heard but ultimately ignored – repeatedly,” he said.

Woodford simultaneously revealed he bought a significant stake in Lloyds Banking Group.