Woodford raises new UK investment fund target size to 800 million pounds

LONDON (Reuters) - Woodford Investment Management, the money manager launched by veteran investor Neil Woodford, said it could raise up to 800 million pounds ($1.2 billion) in a new fund that aims to make long-term investments in British companies.

The Woodford Patient Capital Trust, which is being structured as a close-end investment trust, earlier planned to collect up to 500 million pounds but the company has raised that target, given higher investor demand, it said in a statement on Thursday.

"Over the past few days it has become clear that the concept of investing patient capital in early-stage and early-growth businesses has captured investors’ imagination – so much so that we may exceed 500 million pound during the offer period," Chief Executive Craig Newman said in the statement.

The fund will be managed by Woodford, one of Britain's best-performing fund managers who left Invesco Perpetual last year after more than 25 years to launch his own investment firm.

(Reporting by Nishant Kumar, editing by Sinead Cruise)