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Peter Higgins 00:17
Hello, and welcome to this Investing Matters podcast. Today I have the huge privilege of speaking with a fund manager from Polar Capital Technology Fund team. Fatima Iu. Hello, Fatima, how are you?
Fatima Iu 00:31
Very well. Thank you, Peter. How you doing?
Peter Higgins 00:33
I'm doing very well. Thank you ever so much for coming on this Investing Matters podcast with me. I'm conscious that you are one of the bright lights shining within the Polar Capital team. I wanted to start if I may, because you guys, ladies and gents of the team recently won an Investment Week Specialist Award for the Polar Capital Trust Technology Trust (PCT). So congratulations on that.
Fatima Iu 00:55
Thank you. Thank you, it’s a huge privilege.
Peter Higgins 00:58
I want to start our conversation if I may, because you grew up in Macau. And your family moved to the UK, Kent to be precise, around the time of when you were a teenager. And he moved to London for university. You read chemistry at Imperial College London. And he had a particular interest in focus at the time on medical applications such as diagnostics. Am I right in thinking then, Fatima that you always planned on having a career in science? And if so what happened halfway through your masters that altered your career path?
Fatima Iu 01:29
Yeah, Peter, you're absolutely right. I think that I always thought of myself as more of a science and technology person. I mean, those were the subjects that I was the most interested in. Those were the subjects I was the best at.
So I had quite naturally assumed that that's what I would want to do for a living when I left university. But having spent four years at Imperial College, including time doing my master's with a research group, and also the privilege of working at hospitals such as St. Mary's to do work experience with medical researchers.
It just occurred to me that that might not have been the life that I thought I would want and nothing wrong with that, you know, I still have huge respect for people who are in that field. But what I was finding was that it was almost a moment of wait a minute, this is the only thing I ever thought about, is this really the right thing for me. So it just felt like the right time to pause and have a bit of a rethink, to be honest. So nothing, nothing went wrong, per se. But it just felt that I had been very, very single minded about doing one thing and one thing only.
Peter Higgins 02:32
Invariably I think everything went right, because you've decided on this path so fantastic for everyone.
Fatima Iu 02:37
Yeah, I mean, again, it's really by luck that I got into technology investing. So when I left university after having decided that I needed to think about an alternative path or at least investigate alternative paths, I decided to go into accountancy just as a way to learn a little bit about business and finance. And I was exposed to a range of really interesting clients from metals and futures trading to fund management and fund management was the thing that really kind of piqued my interest. And I felt that with my background in research would potentially be a good fit, which was when I started thinking more seriously about a career in fund management. I was very lucky in that I managed to get a job at Citi Group Asset Management.
At the time, I was really focusing more on European companies in both the consumer staples and consumer discretionary areas. Unfortunately, though, the division was sold to Legg Mason quite soon after I joined.
So I was on the hunt for another job again. And luckily Ben here at Polar, Ben Rogoff, who's the lead manager of the Investment Trust Technology Investment Trust, was looking for a junior at the time, they were just looking for someone who was young and hungry and wanted to learn and I fitted the bill. So here I am.
But once I started, you know, having said that, it wasn't a path that I was deliberately trying to go down. Once I started, it just felt like a very, very natural fit. It combined my relatively newfound interest in investing with my first love, which was science and technology.
Peter Higgins 04:06
Personally much like yourself, I'm a believer in serendipity. And it was meant to be, I believe.
So I want to ask now, obviously, you're part of a huge team, please can you share with our Investing Matters global audience an overview of Polar Capital?
Its sheer scale, and some of its functions and services, please?
Fatima Iu 04:26
Sure. So Polar Capital. We are a specialist investment lead asset manager, founded in 2001. I think the core principle one of the founding principles really is to ensure that the interests of the fund managers are as closely aligned with that of our investors as possible. And as a result of that some of our funds might have more limited capacity in order to allow us the flexibility and agility to provide the best performance as we possibly can. And since then, the company has grown its number of investment teams and range of funds and today we have 15 investment teams and that number changes all the time. And a number of funds across long only and hedge funds as well as three investment trusts.
Peter Higgins 05:10
Thank you very much. I'd like to focus now if I may, on the three products that you are involved in with your team within the team of eight, and your specialist colleagues that you work with regarding the Polar Capital Technology Trust, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and the Global Technology Fund, and also the new Automation and AI Fund, which has open ended products, which between them, I believe it's got around 8.5 billion in assets under management, headed by Nick Evans and Ben Rogoff.
Firstly, I'd like to ask if you could share the team's analytical methodology and the process undertaken by you and the team by when you're selecting your long term holdings for these three specialist products, please?
Fatima Iu 05:53
So yeah, so on the technology team, we run three products today. And I think we are the biggest team within Polar in AUM terms today.
The three products we run are the technology trust, Polar Capital Technology Trust, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange here, a Global Technology Fund, which is an open ended UCITS product. And now last but not least, our latest edition, the Automation and AI Fund, which is also an open ended product.
Now, the first two the Technology Trust and the Global tech Fund, obviously a more classical technology products if you like, whereas the automation and AI fund is really more of a global growth equity product, whereby our universe is really much broader than just technology.
So now focusing in on the core philosophy. Now there's three funds, they are different, they do have different characteristics, and they have different lead managers.
But we do share the same core philosophy around how we think about technology and technology assets, how we think about valuations and how we think about investments. So within the technology trust, I would say that the way we think about it is this.. well, first of all, I have to say that there are lots and lots of different ways to invest. And there are lots and lots of different ways to invest in technology.
If you look across a peer group, you will see that some of our peers are much more value oriented, some are much more growth oriented. And anything in between, I would say that we are probably we are on the growth side. Absolutely. We are growth centric investors.
But we do have valuation discipline, we do care about what price we invest into stocks. And so having said that, where are we the most different, I would say that it is out of session with the adoption S-curve that is really what we are very, very focused on, if I could sort of ask you to imagine having this S-curve that kind of starts low on the left hand side and then accelerates that steepens. And then sort of levels out on the right hand side as and when adoption reaches a certain point. That's the kind of technology S-curve that we talk about.
On the far left, we're talking about very early stage technologies, blue sky, very exciting stuff that we read about tend to read about a lot in the press, where a lot of hype happens.
We do work on all of those technologies, but we tend not to get involved equally on the far right, where we have more mature technologies, where things are well understood. They're not perhaps the most exciting, but are things that people find in their everyday lives they use all the time, they perhaps take for granted.
These are important technologies, but they are not necessarily good investment because well for lots of different reasons.
But primarily that technology is very deflationary. So once unit growth slows is very hard to maintain your top line growth. And we're going to sort of talk about that in more detail if you're interested in.
So we tried to pick our battles, we really tried to focus in the middle section, where we feel that technologies are about to take off where adoption and growth is about to accelerate the steepest part of this S-curve if you like, because this is where we feel we can deliver the most alpha, this is typically where expectations, companies are able to exceed expectations both on the growth and the operating leverage side. So this is I would say where we are the most different probably from some of the other technology products, you find out that.
Peter Higgins 09:18
Excellent, I love that reply. Thank you. Can you share some examples of recent companies that you found at the steepest part of the S-curve for us, please?
Fatima Iu 09:26
Well, I don't know if I'm allowed to go into specific companies. Actually, I'll give you some examples of both companies that do inflect we call it sort of an inflection if you like, where growth rate suddenly accelerates from a to a plus 10, let's say. And there are examples, plenty of examples where things don't inflect.
So I'll give you examples of where things have inflated. So electric vehicles, for example, that technology has been around for a very long time, very, very long time and we've been watching this development and you know, we've been watching Tesla, listening to what Elon Musk talks about in the press and looking at the cars. And really there were a lot of scepticism around whether it's going to become mass market.
In fact, even companies that are incumbents if you like, in the automotive sector, I'm talking about semiconductor companies primarily, that are big in the automotive market, many of them have been very sceptical around the pace of electric vehicle adoption. And yet, for lots of different reasons, when different things come together, the adoption rate accelerated. And we believe that we are still going through quite a steeper part of the adoption curve, if you like, if you look at the penetration rates of electric vehicles, as a percentage of new sales and in store based in Europe and US in China, we believe there is still plenty of room for companies that are exposed to this vertical to grow.
So that's one example. Now, the flip side, I would say would be something like 3d printing very, very cool technology. But in volume terms, it just never really inflected, you know, the market never really expanded enough to enable a much faster growth rate. So it's a sector is a product that that we know, well is a technology that we know well had been following for years. But we are not exposed to it today, because there is no inflection happening in that market.
Peter Higgins 11:14
That almost runs seamlessly to that to my next question. And thank you for that reply. With regards to what triggers the team to review, a long-term holding or a holding regarding a reduction or an exit of that particular sector or strategy?
Fatima Iu 11:28
Well, first of all, price target attainment, when a stock gets to where we feel it's fair value as we exit. That's number one. Number two is when things change. And things do change. Often in our sector. I think in particular, it changes things change everywhere. But I think in particular, in technology, things can change very dramatically, and very fast.
So we pay a lot of attention to competitive dynamics, we speak to not only our holdings, but we speak to their competitors, their suppliers, their customers to try and gauge any change in competitive positioning as early as we possibly can. And we will exit when things change for the worse, or we will at least review or or reduce opposition sizes, as you say, the third is missed execution.
So you have good technologies, and you have good management teams. And they're not always the same thing. So quite often, we have management teams who fail to deliver for various reasons, there are management teams who show themselves to be disingenuous over time, there are management teams who show themselves not able to handle changes in the end markets. And so if there is a serious mis execution, we exit and we wait to review our investment, and perhaps come back another day when we feel that management teams that found that footing.
So I would say those are the kind of main catalysts for us to review or exit an investment.
Peter Higgins 12:51
Excellent. So on that side of the exit strategy, and know that your team is really big on researching, and also post selection monitoring these particular selections of yours, it's so important and regarding your, you know, achieving alpha. So do you want to share how the team monitors how much time is spent on that as well?
Fatima Iu 13:10
Very much. So you know, I would say that is substantially all of our time, you know, we read research we speak to while companies that we hold in our portfolio, we aim to speak to four times a year.
So this is every quarter when they report when we get the opportunity to speak to them. And also companies in our pipeline companies that we're looking to invest in, we try to speak to them at least two or three times a year. And typically companies will be held in a pipeline for six, nine months.
But before we pulled the trigger, and so by then we would already know the company reasonably well.
Yeah, and as I mentioned earlier, we also place a lot of value in speaking to their competitors, and their suppliers and their customers.
Because as good and honest as the management team might be, you can't just take the word for what's going on. So you need to do your channel checks, you need to be able to corroborate what they're saying with third party. So we do a lot of that.
We also love speaking to experts, especially when it comes to new technologies to understand the nuances of how this technology is being used, for example, and the drawbacks of these new technologies. What are the things that need to be improved in order for things to reach mass market, for example, so we do a lot of that. And finally, last but not least, sell side analysts.
They are very useful source for us for information and for knowledge because they have much better access to management teams or industry experts and we do so it's very useful to stay in touch with them on a regular basis, just to make sure that we pick up any changes in the end market environment or at the company level as soon as we possibly can.
Peter Higgins 14:41
Excellent thank you for that for a reply really appreciate that.
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Peter Higgins 15:01
Now across the three products, three largest holdings of the last check that I made, were tech behemoths, Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet. Now Ben Rogoff spoke in the last half year update about concentration risk, please, can you elaborate on this, and why the team are very careful about this both in the bear market and also in a bull market?
Fatima Iu 15:23
Sure, well, Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet, these are companies that are well known to you, and hopefully to your audience to these are good companies.
So to be very clear, yes, they are some of our biggest holdings in the trust. But we are underweight relative to our benchmark, that sort of number one.
Now, the point I wanted to make, first of all, is that we only hold them because we believe that they aren't good companies. So companies that we feel are maybe too far beyond the S curve that I talked about, you know, too far on the right, where we feel that they might struggle to reinvent themselves, we will not hold regardless of benchmark weight.
So I know these stocks actually have done reasonably well in the last year when market have been volatile. But we haven't held IBM in a very, very, very long time in the trust. Same goes for Oracle. Same goes for Intel, actually.
So not to say that we won't revisit these names. But at the moment, you know, we look at the potential that they can deliver compared to other opportunities elsewhere, you know, we just felt that they do not yet deserve a place in our portfolio.
Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet, on the other hand, are very good companies that are still seeing very, very healthy top line growth. And they're doing all the right things in terms of delivering earnings growth.
Now, each company will have its own nuances. And we can go into that if you like. But ultimately, we only hold them because we still believe that these are good companies that may be getting to the more mature side of the curve, in terms of concentration risk.
I think that these companies have got so big now they are beaten not only in our index, as I mentioned, you know, these are three of our biggest holdings. And yet we are very underweight compared to our benchmark, but they're also in global indices, they are in the MSCI World Index area in the S&P 500.
So if you think about collectively, from our investors perspective, they might hold our fund plus a whole host of other products, they probably ended up owning much more Apple and Microsoft and Alphabet than they had intended to.
So there is a risk of what if tomorrow, Apple tells you that while smartphone units have gone into decline, what happens then?
Yeah, so we are very conscious of the fact that it just cannot be right, with all the exciting things that are happening within technology to have too much invested in one two or three companies, regardless of how good they are.
Because that's not what we're here to do. You know, we're here to find the next big thing. And in many ways, these should be the index constituents of the future, not index constituents today, so yeah, so we are trying to balance delivering a portfolio that has reasonable growth rate with good quality companies that are also conscious of the fact that there is a concentration risk within the indices and the broader market.
Peter Higgins 18:16
Fantastic reply, thank you so much for that, Fatima. Now, you've been with Polar for around 17 years now. And I'm sure you and your team have deliberated and had many, many talks about this. I'm going to ask this question, which particular company and you can go into it as many nuances as you like, that's provided the team, the technology team with the most cheer of the years that you've been there?
Fatima Iu 18:36
The most cheer? I don't know, it depends on how you what you mean, when you say cheer?
Peter Higgins 18:42
With regards to value, occlusive value and also consistency as well, because as you've mentioned in the interview, there are some companies that start off really, really well, but they don't actually continue on that curve, the growth.
Fatima Iu 18:54
Well you know, if you're talking about over a long period of time, I have to say, coming back to Apple and Alphabet, specifically, and Microsoft too, you know, those have been some of our longest term holdings. And the results speak for themselves.
These are good companies, which is why they still feature so heavily in our portfolio despite being on the more mature end of the adoption curve.
So yeah, I would say from a compounding perspective, that's the other thing. You know, one of the important things is the ability to hold on to the winners and having consistent management teams consistent results help you stay within stocks, and those three probably are the ones that we would have made the most money out of over the last 15-16 years that I've been sort of working within the team.
But you know, in terms of cheer and fun, we have fun looking at lots and lots of different companies, you know that there are just as many if not more lessons to be learned from the disasters than the winners. So I would say in pure number terms, those probably will be some of the best compounders that we've had.
But in the shorter term, you know, we have lots and lots of very interesting holdings that have either made us money or lost us money.
Peter Higgins 20:04
Thank you. Now, I want to touch on very briefly the newer fund that you and the team have started in October 2017, the Polar Capital Automation and Artificial Intelligence Fund. And since then it's annualised returns of around 6.4-6.5.
Now, Fatima, I've heard you describe AI as a superset, please, can you expand on its potential technological importance going forward? And why you see it as a superset AI?
Fatima Iu 20:32
Yeah, I think the reason why we use that term is because, again, if you go back four or five years, we were you know, we'd be asked by some of our investors to launch narrow themed funds. So quite often, there'll be interest in a mobility fund or a 5G fund.
And we've always sort of stayed away from doing that, because we ultimately don't believe that that's the best way to benefit from emerging technologies, themes play out, again, going back to our adoption curve, we don't believe that you can just hold on to something forever, you know, things have to change when you are right. Hopefully, when you're right about a technology or a theme, it takes off. But once it's done that, what is next, what is next?
So we've always stayed away from launching narrow, themed fun. However, AI is different. It is not a subset of technology, it is not a sub sector of technology.
It is we hope one day will prove to be a general purpose technology that can be used everywhere by everyone. And what chat GPT I don't know, if you've had a chance to play with it. I mean, that certainly proves our point a little bit, which is that this can be much, much bigger and broader than any of these other technologies that we just talked about.
So they're not comparable. So the reason why we launched that fund is because we think outside of core technology companies and for sure, if you want to have exposure to artificial intelligence within a core technology products, there are lots of ways to do that you can buy the semiconductor companies that supply the parts that help you build the large language models, you could try to invest in companies that build applications API's around it.
There are ways but if you didn't want to invest in technology companies, are there other ways to benefit from AI? And our view is, yes, absolutely, and perhaps even more opportunities to benefit from Ai than within core tech. And the reason is that we think that there are many companies out there industrial companies, primarily medical companies, also, they are able to harness the power of AI to their own benefit.
So either to expand addressable market, or to improve their competitive moats, or to give themselves better pricing, we see a lot of opportunities for real, I call them real world companies, but I mean non technology companies to do that. And we think that creates a very, very interesting investment opportunity for us and for our investors. So that's why we launched a fund. And that's why we describe AI as a superset. It is something that really could be used and should be used by everyone, not just technology companies, we use this very silly example.
If you think about Wi-Fi, when why am I first started proliferating when it first started to become a commonplace, cheap and good technology that everyone can use.
How would you play the proliferation of Wi-Fi? You can of course buy stocks in Cisco Systems, they are biggest makers, they were the biggest maker of Wi-Fi boxes.
But you could also invest in Starbucks, Starbucks, by providing free Wi-Fi in all of the stores had turned themselves from what was kind of a high end coffee shop, to a quite a discretionary product, they in turn themselves into really this third space, this idea of a place outside of your office and your home where you can sit and work and have meetings, or have just some quiet thinking time, where you would go on a regular basis and pay £4 for a coffee without thinking too much about it.
So we think about that it's quite a powerful phenomenon that often gets lost. Because people are so obsessed with all the Wi-Fi box, who makes the better box, the faster box. But actually there are lots of other companies who can benefit from the use of technology. So that's why we're excited about AI in particular, and why we launched that fund about four years ago.
Peter Higgins 24:18
Brilliant. Thank you for that response. Now, I noticed within that fund as well, that you have UK-listed RELX (REL) as a holding within the fund.
Please can you tell us a little bit more about this company which some of our investors should be aware of the qualities that enable this company to reach Polar Capital's higher investment standards to qualify?
Fatima Iu 24:36
Well, I can touch on it very briefly.
So this is a holding within our automation and AI fund and not within the Investment Trust. So I just wanted to be very clear about that. Look, we think there is plenty of opportunity for RELX to ingest AI into the core product, which is the LexisNexis to really make it a product that has a superior ROI compared to what it is today, it is a market leader it has effectively a monopoly in what it does.
And yet, over the years, if you look at how they've operated, they have not really taken any pricing. And it's because it was considered something that was not a revenue generator as such.
So it was, it's always hard to get your customers to pay more for something that your customers don't view as a revenue generator. And we think AI could change that. Now we're early days in that the company is doing what we think the company has a plan, and we'll see if it plays out. We hope that it does.
But we see lots of opportunities similar to that in the market for companies do, as I mentioned earlier, either expand your market, improve your competitive mode, or improve your pricing if you're able to ingest AI in a suitable way into your core product offering.
Peter Higgins 25:50
Okay dokey, thank you for that. Now, we've touched on it a little bit earlier. I'd like to move on now, if I may to the Global Technology Fund, you said almost you know, we've covered it, basically their theme and strategy around that it's not dissimilar to the trust. But could you show some of the different nuances regarding that approach?
Fatima Iu 26:05
So I would say if I were to sort of compare the trust and the Global Technology Fund, I would say that the trust is perhaps a little bit more benchmark aware, we hold a longer list of names, we do hold some smaller names, less liquid names, mainly because it's a closed-ended product. So if you can't do it in a closed-ended product, where else would you do it?
Whereas in the open-ended fund, we are much more careful about the liquidity profile of that product.
We went through the 08/09 cycle where technology and plus a whole lot of other things were out of favour.
Now investors wanted their money back. And I think our ability to allow our investors to take the money back when they needed it has served us well, because many of these investors have come back since when risk appetite returned. And we do believe that when you run an open-ended fund, that should be a key consideration.
So I would say that that is probably the main that the two main differences. So the trust being more benchmark aware and have more ability to hold a longer list of stocks, and smaller companies, less liquid companies, whereas with the Global Technology Fund, we tried to stay very, very liquid. And it does have a shorter list of stocks. And so I would say perhaps slightly higher beta than the technology trust, but otherwise, the fundamental philosophies remained the same.
Peter Higgins 27:24
Thank you for that fantastic reply. Thank you now, one of your holdings in the global technology firm is Nvidia which is a behemoth across several supersets and subsets. What is yours and the team's present view of Nvidia’s potential? And current valuation for may be so bold to ask?
Fatima Iu 27:40
Well, we think that leaving valuation aside, I think what investors, including ourselves are very concerned or have been very concerned with is of course, what's the global macro outlook? And how would that impact invidious various revenue streams?
I think, from our perspective, we feel that the company has been reasonably proactive in bringing down expectations, and they've been giving us a lot of information around the different parts. So you know, that the exposure to gaming for example, and cryptocurrencies and, and which enable us to model I suppose, you know, our own have our own view of where revenue is going to go from here.
So, the question is, what's going to be once that kind of correction, if you like, is out of the way, what is the trajectory for the company over the medium-term, and our view is as positive as ever, which is that having spent so much I'm talking about AI, and Nvidia is a key enabler of that.
And so yeah, we have a positive view, you know, I can't share with you our valuation metrics, per se, or our price target. But we do believe that Nvidia remains a very desirable and important technology asset.
But near-term, I think that Nvidia with many, many other companies are going to have to contend with a very uncertain macro-economic environment. And also what we've seen the last couple of years, which is a lot of pull forward in PC, for example, that might have created some noise around the growth trajectory.
So that all has to sort of wash out and normalise before you can see kind of the true growth again. And so you know, near term, I think we're still going to be working through that as we go into this earnings season. But apart from that we are believers in Nvidia’s competitive positioning going forward.
Peter Higgins 29:33
Thank you for that. I really appreciate it. Now, Fatima, you've covered most of it, but I'd like you to take this opportunity to reiterate to our listeners, what aspects of investing really matters to you as a fund manager within the team?
Fatima Iu 29:46
Well, so I think number one is the reason why I love this job and have been doing it for so long is this opportunity, the ability to learn new things every day, you know, every day we're learning about new technologies, or new companies as well as something in a financial markets, and how things interact with each other how they're all interconnected.
So every day you are learning and I just think that is a great thing to be spending time on.
But then specifically within technology again, at the risk of sounding a bit cheesy, I do believe in technology's ability to do good technology, in most parts, I think helped democratise things, it puts power in the hands of many rather than view.
And again, I know there are definitely contradicting data points there. But by and large, I still think it's a great enabler, and leveller. And if you think about the kind of issues that we are all having to contend with over the medium-term, you know, I'm thinking about wage inflation and climate change.
I think technology has a big part to play and all of that. It's not the silver bullet, by no means. But I think that technology really can help deliver solutions that will drive us forward. So that's why I'm in this job. I think investing is a great thing to be doing because of the learning opportunities. And the great conversations that I have with everybody within the ecosystem and technology, specifically, just a very, very exciting space to be.
Peter Higgins 31:10
Indeed, and the International Energy Agency infused in a recent article, the world is entering a new age of clean technology, manufacturing, and countries industrial strategies will be key to its success. Do you obviously agree? If so, which clean technology companies are you at Polar Capital looking closely at and or I've already invested in?
Fatima Iu 31:32
So again, trying to stay away from specific stocks, which I'm afraid I've been told to do.
But look, across technologies, there are so many technologies that will help green our world that actually have existed for a long time, you know, these are not necessarily new technologies.
So I think about semiconductor companies, for example, as and when we electrify our auto fleet, a lot of semiconductor companies will benefit, or companies that make novel materials that now are much more attractive than they had been previously, because of the urgency the impetus to reduce energy consumption, for example, technology, in general, is always trying to do more with less, that is the premise of technology.
So automating things using things more efficiently. So there are lots and lots of ways to invest. And of course, renewable energy is something that it's actually one of the first areas I looked at when I joined Polar in 2006.
And of course, I hadn't needed that knowledge for a very long time, because that kind of whole solar space went through a boom bust cycle, as many technologies do. And yet today, these solar and wind power are very competitive from a pricing perspective. And so adoption is accelerating again, you know, quite a high level.
So, there are lots and lots of things happening within a technology space, that actually have been sort of happening in the background for a long time, but definitely been accelerated by recent events and the changing view, I think around climate impetus, if you like.
Peter Higgins 33:04
Thank you for that. I'm going change things up slightly now. And just ask you, if I may, to share a little bit about your personal investing style. And where do you invest your savings for the long-term Fatima?
Fatima Iu 33:16
Sure. So I don't do a lot of single stock investing. But I am heavily heavily invested in our own funds, or three of our funds, I am an investor, because I am a believer, like I said earlier, it sounds cheesy, but I believe in technologies. And then outside of that, as you can imagine, I also am also invested in other things that are aligned with these core values that I hold, such as things that enable betterment, things that grow the pie.
So it wouldn't surprise you by telling you that I have investments in things that are related to technology, such as healthcare, and biotechnology and all that stuff.
Now, I also invest in a lot of funds at Polar, now I have the benefits of knowing the managers who run these products.
So I guess, you know, I have a bit of an advantage that I see them around all the time, I get to talk to them about their views of the world all the time.
So that's why I feel comfortable investing in so many other Polar funds, despite the fact that it does appear to create some kind of concentration risk. But within Polar, we have such a wide range of funds.
Now I do manage to find products that give me diversification away from technology. So things that give me access to areas that are hard to access as a technology investors such as emerging markets, for example. Yeah, so that's kind of what I do is quite a pro-growth portfolio if you like, but that's what I believe in. I'm a growth investor. And so I think that this is the right way to go.
Peter Higgins 34:43
Thank you for that.
That's part and parcel of why we're doing these interviews. We want to get access to yourself and other people within the Polar team so that our listeners can get a little bit of an edge and educate themselves as to what funds are out there.
How can I become a better investor and just educate them and I think that's brilliant that you have that access to other members of your team as well.
Thank you for that. Now, you're a mum of two, you've got two young children, have you started investments for them? And if so, are they also Polar Capital investors as well?
Fatima Iu 35:13
Yes, I'm afraid that they are. They don't have a choice at the moment. They are the eight and three. So when the time comes, they can make their own decisions. But right now, I'm afraid it is just what I say. Yes, but very much so very much.
Peter Higgins 35:25
Excellent, now I've got a final question for you. It's a fun one, you've already touched on a word that I'm using here as well, which is about betterment.
Now, Fatima, I would like to bestow upon you the power to change something, anything that will enable technological advancements for the betterment of your children, and the whole population of this planet we call earth. What would you change, do and why?
Fatima Iu 35:50
Oh gosh, to enable betterment for my well, you know, I have to say, two of the biggest issues that I fear for my children, you're not necessarily in my lifetime, but certainly for my children would be climate and demographics.
And those are very difficult things to change, unfortunately, things difficult to turn around, not impossible.
So if I were to have a power to change something, I would really accelerate technologies that could help improve our chances of turning these areas around.
So within climate, it's easier to talk about climate than demographics, I suppose as a technology investor, because there are so many things happening.
So we talked about solar and wind. But outside of that we've got energy storage, that's going to be very important. Hydrogen, I think, very promising personally, but it's going to take a long time, a lot of capital to get going.
So if I were to have the power to help these companies accelerate the technology development, I know that nuclear has been in the press a lot, you know, if I didn't have the power to really help them get over the line, that will be great.
I think those are the things and demographics. I don't know, I think there's a lot of really cool health tech companies out there that could help you know, it won't necessarily help change birth rates, or death rates. But it certainly can help more people live a longer, healthier life and have the life be more productive for longer.
That could help alleviate some of the demographic pressure on many, many countries. So I guess if I were to have the magical wand that I could wave to help some of these companies accelerate the progress, that's probably what I would do.
Peter Higgins 37:30
I absolutely love that response Fatima. Thank you ever so much for that. I'm going to close this interview with you with a quote, if I may. And it's a quote from Polar Capital CEO that you know very well.
Gavin Rochussen, Polar Capital is an investment led integrated multi booty that is a boutique in itself. It is a specialist active fund management business whose culture is characterised as meritocratic, and collaborative. The real strength of Pole Capital is its specialist focused investment teams who have their own autonomous investment process and philosophy.
Now we've had the pleasure today of hearing from you Fatima, hugely talented fund manager and a vital member of that Polar Capital Technology investment team. Fatima, thank you ever so much. Take care and God bless you.
Fatima Iu 38:17
Thank you, Peter.
LSE 38:25
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