Following the decision to suspend his Woodford Equity Income Fund, Neil Woodford has apologised to investors, claiming to be “extremely sorry”.

Woodford prevented money from going in or out of his fund on Tuesday, after an increasing number of investors cut ties with the fund. However, Woodford has justified his decision, stating it was “necessary to protect investor’s interests”, the BBC reported.

Over the past four weeks, investors had withdrawn about £560m from the fund. Despite his apology, the fund manager explained that, while the decision was difficult and “clearly frustrating” for investors, he thought it was “necessary to protect your interests”.

Due to the rising number of investors withdrawing from the fund, Woodford said the stock market was “in a way anticipating the fact that we would have to be sellers of stocks to meet those redemptions”, which would result in “disadvantageous” stocks for investors.

Speaking to the BBC, Woodford said: “I'm extremely sorry that we've had to take this decision, we will keep our investors informed. We will use this time to reposition the fund."

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