Polar Capital Regulatory News (POLR)

9 April 2020

Polar Capital Holdings plc

AuM Update

Polar Capital Holdings plc ("Polar Capital" or the "Group"), the specialist asset management group, today provides its regular quarterly update of its unaudited statement of its assets under management ("AuM") for the financial year to 31 March 2020.

Group AUM (unaudited)

Polar Capital reports that as at 31 March 2020 its AuM were £12.2bn compared to £13.8bn at the end of March 2019, a decrease of 12% over the year. In the three months ended 31 March 2020 AuM decreased by £1.9bn mainly due to the combined impact of COVID-19 and a sharp fall in oil price causing severe global equity market declines at the end of the quarter.

During the 12-month period, AuM decreased by £1.7bn which comprised net outflows of £1.2bn and a decrease of £0.5bn mainly related to market movement, but mitigated by fund performance. 

Gavin Rochussen, Chief Executive, commented:

"The coronavirus pandemic and oil price collapse brought an abrupt end to the longest bull market in history with the S&P500 declining 34% over a four-week period to its low point on 22 March. A strong rally to 31 March followed unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus to ensure economies and markets continued to function. Polar Capital was not immune to this equity market volatility with our AuM decreasing by £1.9bn in the March quarter alone because of market declines.

"Leading up to and throughout the period of lock-down as we invoked our business continuity plan and transitioned to entirely remote working it has been pleasing to witness the operational resilience of Polar Capital and its ability to continue servicing clients in a seamless manner. I am particularly pleased with the commitment of all our people, whose health and wellbeing are vitally important, as we have worked tirelessly to meet our investors' needs.

"The support of our fund investors, clients and other stakeholders has been comforting and we have been pleasantly surprised by the initial limited quantum of redemptions when investors were raising cash to reduce risk in their portfolios.

"Net outflows in the March quarter were £140m, of which £135m were from our alternative funds. Net flows were positive for the first two months of the quarter.

"While AuM has decreased by 12% over the year and the equity bear market means we enter our new financial year with lower average AuM than the previous year, Polar Capital continues to be cash generative and is able to utilise its significant balance sheet to meet our operational and strategic objectives.

"Despite market volatility in March and a rapid equity sell-off that exceeded that of the financial crisis, 55% of our AuM out-performed benchmarks in the March quarter.

"We are comforted by the evidence of our operational resilience in these testing times and, together with our diverse and complementary range of fund strategies with proven track records, we remain well positioned to deliver compelling returns for our clients and shareholders."

Polar Capital aims to announce its results for the financial year to 31 March 2020 on 22 June 2020.

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