(Bloomberg) -- Neil Woodford’s flagship fund will be shuttered and the embattled fund manager has lost control of the fund he founded.

The fund’s administrator Link Fund Solutions hired BlackRock Advisers to prepare the portfolio for the winding down process, according to an emailed statement on Tuesday. The former star stock picker ceases to be the fund manager with immediate effect.

“After careful review of the fund and its holdings we have decided not to re-open the fund and instead to wind it up,” Link wrote in a letter to investors. “We recognize that this will come as a disappointment to some investors.”

The move marks the latest chapter in what’s been a dramatic reversal for the former U.K fund manager. Woodford built up a reputation by correctly calling major swings in technology, tobacco and other stocks over decades. Plagued by years of poor performance and mounting redemption requests, his fund administrator froze redemptions in the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund in June.

Since the suspension, Woodford has been offloading small stakes in the fund in to a cohort of investors in a series of fire sales.

(Updates with more details from first paragraph)

To contact the reporters on this story: Lucca de Paoli in London at gdepaoli1@bloomberg.net;Suzy Waite in London at swaite8@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, Ambereen Choudhury

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