Neil Woodford has announced that he will close Woodford Investment Management’s two remaining funds, bringing the company to an end five years after its launch in 2014.

Created by Mr Woodford following his departure from Invesco Perpetual, Woodford Investment Management endured a torrid year with its equity income fund being suspended from trading since June. Earlier this week, its administrators Link Fund Solutions removed Mr Woodford from his managerial position of the fund and wrote to investors to tell them the fund would be wound up. Its assets had fallen from a peak of over £10 billion in 2017 to £3.7 billion by the time it was frozen.

Prompted by this decision, Mr Woodford has  decided to close both his income focus fund ans patient capital fund, the last remnants of his investment empire.

Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at investment platform Willis Owen believed that closing Woodford Investment Management was the right thing to do, believing it would put an end to “inevitable speculation” and that its future had looked bleak.

Explaining the ramifications of the closure, he added: “Investors money is ring-fenced and will remain invested in the respective funds and in the underlying investments.”

Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, was not surprised by the decision either.

He said: “The closure of Woodford Investment Management had a feeling of inevitability about it. Without the fees from the equity income fund and with no performance fee coming from the Patient Capital Trust, it was difficult to see how the business could survive.”

Mr Hughes believed that providing more information to investors was the next key step.

He said: “This creates further uncertainty for a larger number of customers and the key now is that they are given information about what is going to happen to their investments as soon as possible.”