Built on a Lie: The Rise and Fall of Neil Woodford and the Fate of Middle England's Money

Description

The rise and fall of Neil Woodford, the star fund manager who lost e18 billion of everyday investor's money The proud owner of a sprawling e14m estate in the Cotswolds, boasting a stable of eventing horses, a fleet of supercars and neighbouring the royal family, Neil Woodford was the most celebrated and successful British investor of his generation. He spent years beating the market; betting against the dot com bubble in the 1990s and the banks before the financial crash in 2008, making blockbuster returns for his investors and earning himself a reputation of 'the man who made Middle England rich'. As famous for his fleet of fast cars and ostentatious mansions, he was the rockstar fund manager that had the lifestyle to match. But, in 2019, after a stream of poorly-judged investments, Woodford's asset management company collapsed, trapping hundreds of thousands of rainy-day savers in his flagship fund and hanging e3.6bn in the balance. In Built on a Lie, Financial Times reporter Owen Walker reveals the disastrous failings of Woodford, the greed at the heart of his operation, the flaws of an industry in thrall to its star performers and the dangers of limited regulation. With exclusive access to Woodford's inner circle, Walker will reveal the full, jaw-dropping story of Europe's biggest investment scandal in a decade.

Owen Walker is an award-winning business journalist, covering European banks for the Financial Times. He was previously asset management correspondent at the newspaper and his reporting on Neil Woodford's downfall led to the FT winning business and finance team of the year at the 2019 Society of Editors' Press Awards. His first book, Barbarians in the Boardroom, covered activist investors and was published in 2016.

An outstanding, readable, well researched account of the collapse of Woodford Investment Management ...'Built on a lie' wasn't a journalist's sound-bite but the judgement of Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, who saw clearly that Woodford was a symptom of a dangerously unstable investment model. When a rogue investor smashes down a rotten door causing so much damage, give some credit to the rotten door. This is a must read -- Vince Cable * former leader of the Liberal Democrats and Secretary of State for Business * What reads like a rip roaring tale of a corporate high wire act is in fact also a forensic exposure of a finance system out of control, populated by gambling profiteers operating with impunity and accountable to nobody -- John McDonnell * Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and former Shadow Chancellor * Owen reveals in meticulous detail the actions of disgraced fund manager Woodford - how he did what he did. But he also places at the heart of the story those who lost their life's savings. The ones whose names and stories we mustn't forget. Vital financial journalism with heart -- Emma Barnett * broadcaster * Colourful, insightful and pacey -- Oliver Shah * Business Editor of the Sunday Times and author of Damaged Goods: The Rise and Fall of Sir Philip Green * This book should be sold with a bottle of blood-pressure pills. Owen Walker paints a picture of complacency, incompetence and deceit that allowed Woodford, arrogant and naive in equal measure, to splurge his investors' cash on half-baked schemes, covering up the results with financial jiggery-pokery and outright lies. Written with refreshing clarity about a subject often shrouded in mumbo-jumbo and jargon... Walker's depiction is meticulous and unsparing. -- Edward Lucas * The Times * Neil Woodford made his name as the fund manager who made middle England rich, becoming a rock star to the investment world. Then it all went horribly wrong and Woodford lost investors more than GBP1bn in a ruinous fire sale. The FT's European banking correspondent tells the story expertly. * Financial Times, Best Books of 2021 *