By Nishant Kumar
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Star British fund manager NeilWoodford, who left Invesco Perpetual in April to start his ownfirm, is beginning his new role with a focus on tobacco and drugstocks, believing they can withstand what he expects will be afaltering global economy.
Woodford built a strong following after managing money formore than 25 years at Invesco, including the $22 billion InvescoPerpetual High Income, Britain's largest equity fund.
In his first portfolio disclosure after he started managingmoney for Woodford Investment Management last month, the fundmanager said the liquidity flows that have supported assetprices over the past five years were going into reverse, whilegrowth in many parts of the world was being downgraded.
"I have been very careful in building a portfolio thatavoids sectors that I believe are vulnerable to a falteringglobal economy," Woodford said in a statement.
"There is significant emphasis in my new fund on the tobaccoand pharmaceutical sectors. These two sectors are resilient tofalling demand, have strong balance sheets and attractivevaluations," he added.
Woodford's top bets at the end of June included AstraZenecaPlc, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, British AmericanTobacco Plc and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc.
His new fund, which focuses on companies offering "sustaineddividend growth", also disclosed investments in Rolls-RoyceHoldings Plc and Imperial Innovations Group Plc.
Investors pay close attention to bets of high-profile fundmanagers such as Woodford, who also committed to disclose allthe holdings of his CF Woodford Equity Income Fund on a monthlybasis. Most funds usually only disclose top-10 bets.
For over 25 years under Woodford, the Invesco Perpetual HighIncome Fund gained more than 2,200 percent, according to datafrom fund tracker Thomson Reuters Lipper. By comparison, theFTSE All-Share Total Return index rose 868 percent.
Woodford stopped managing the fund in March this year andmoved on to start his own firm.
His new venture got off to an auspicious start with assetmanagement firm St James's Place announcing earlier this yearthat it was ending 7.7 billion pounds worth of investmentmandates with Invesco Perpetual and would allocate nearly halfof that to Woodford. (Editing by Mark Potter)