Woodford Equity Income investors are set to receive an initial £185.7m distribution as part of Link’s scheme of arrangement today (28 March), almost five years on from the fund’s suspension in June 2019.

Depending on the share class, investors will receive between 4p and 5.2p per share in the initial distribution.

The scheme, which became effective on 5 March, allows payments of up to £230m to be made in redress to investors. This means the first pay-out falls £44.3m below the agreed maximum amount.

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On top of the initial payment, LFSL has set aside a reserve from the overall settlement fund in order to cover certain costs and liability contingencies.

A Link spokesperson told Portfolio Adviser that setting a reserve amount allowed the first payment to be made to investors as soon as possible.

The reserve amount has been set at £46.5m, which Link said would be reviewed on a regular basis, with further distributions to be made to investors if contingencies can be released.

According to Link, it will take additional time for creditors who have invested through intermediaries to receive their payments, depending on the time it takes for intermediaries to process distributions.

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