Stifel analyst Iain Scouller believes now is the time to buy investment trust Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), trading on a 13% discount to net asset value (NAV) and which was heavily out of favour until a few months ago.

Scouller says the long wait may be over for investors with many companies in the portfolio making encouraging progress, helping to boost NAV.

Recent examples include energy tech company Industrial Heat enjoying a revaluation uplift of 357% to $112.9m in September and biopharmaceutical firm Autolus floating on NASDAQ in June.

The analyst says unquoted companies in the trust which account for 80% of NAV may be moving closer to a stock market debut or further revaluations.

Investors will have to decide whether the potential risks outweigh the possible gains with Woodford Patient Capital Trust as 65% of NAV is generated via the top 10 investments.

Any bad news that impacts the top 10, which includes cancer specialist Autolus, artificial intelligence company Benevolent AI and biotech Prothena, could disproportionately affect the performance of the trust.

Last year, it suffered a poor performance amid various issues including a key clinical trial failure at Prothena. (LMJ)

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