LONDON (Reuters) - The deepening slump in shares of Allied Minds (L:ALML) took them below their listing price for the first time in nearly three years on Thursday and brought losses for the year to more than 60 percent.
Allied Minds, a company that funds technology and healthcare start-ups, was one of the hottest initial public offerings (IPO) in the U.K. in 2014, having risen by nearly threefold in the year after listing.
Over the past month, however, the stock, which has some high-profile shareholders on its roster including Neil Woodford's Woodford Investment Management and Invesco Asset Management, has come under severe selling pressure.
The stock suffered its worst single-day ever on Wednesday after it said it would pull the plug on seven units which made up about a quarter of its current portfolio.
Woodford's fund and his old firm, Invesco, own roughly half of Allied Minds, according to latest filing data.
Neil Woodford defended his fund's holding in an interview with the Daily Telegraph dismissing the recent weakness as "short-term noise" and adding that restructuring would instead create value for shareholders.