Neil Woodford-backed Non Standard Finance was today counting the cost of its failed attempt to buy rival subprime lender Provident Financial.
The company took a £12.7 million charge related to the bid, which was ditched in June. NSF posted a pre-tax loss of £22.8 million in the six months to the end of June, also hurt by a writedown in its home credit business.
Despite this, trading is in line with City expectations. Woodford, who is reportedly mulling selling his stake, has a 26% holding.
It comes as Neil Woodford exited a small investment from his shuttered Equity Income fund today in a near-£1 million sell-off.
The fallen fund star sold nearly his entire stake in Itaconix, a plastics company supplying AkzoNobel and Croda, which has seen its shares crash 53% this year.
Woodford cut his stake in the £4.8 million AIM-listed polymers company from 19.2% to less than 5%.
Itaconix was a small part of the Equity Income Fund, accounting for less than 0.1%, according to the last available portfolio list.
Shares in Itaconix increased 5.4% today.
