Polar Capital Share News (POLR)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Polar Capital Holdings PLC said Thursday that assets under management increased in the first nine months of its financial year but warned it was not "immune" to the market correction suffered in the third quarter.

The investment management company also appointed a new chief investment officer.

Assets under management stood at GBP12.66 billion on December 31, up 5.7% from GBP11.98 billion on March 31, the beginning of Polar Capital's financial year.

Polar Capital's assets under management stood at GBP14.7 billion on September 30, however, so the December total represented a 14% decrease during the course of the financial third quarter.

Polar Capital said: "The group has not been immune to the market correction that followed the last quarterly update and has had a challenging period."

The investment firm suffered net outflows of GBP286 million in the third quarter. Despite this, Polar Capital said it achieved record performance fees in the first three quarters.

In the nine months to December 31, Polar Capital recorded GBP23.6 million in performance fees, a 57% increase on the GBP15.0 million recorded in the same period a year ago.

In the nine months to December 31, the investment manager said GBP31 million was added to its total funds through market movement and performance. In the third quarter, however, Polar Capital's funds lost GBP1.77 billion through performance.

Additionally, Polar Capital said it has hired Sandy Black as the firm's new chief investment officer. He was most recently investment director at JO Hambro Capital Management Ltd.

The company also launched two new funds within its undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities strategy in January: an Asian Stars fund and a Global Absolute Return fund.

Finally, Polar Capital announced that Non-Executive Director Brian Ashford-Russell sold 250,000 shares in the company at 485.00 pence per share.

Following Thursday's GBP1.2 million transaction, Ashford-Russell still holds an interest in 5.2 million shares, which represents about 5.5% of Polar Capital's issued share capital.

Shares in Polar Capital were down 0.4% Thursday at 486.00 pence each.