Polar Capital Regulatory News (POLR)

12 April 2018

Polar Capital Holdings plc

AuM Update

Polar Capital Holdings plc ("Polar Capital" or the "Group"), the specialist active asset management group, today provides its quarterly update of its unaudited statement of its Assets under Management ("AuM") for the financial year to 31 March 2018.

Group AuM (unaudited)

Polar Capital reports that as at 31 March 2018 its AuM were £12.0bn compared to £9.3bn at the end of March 2017, an increase of 29% over the year. In the quarter, AuM increased by £0.3bn of which £525m were net inflows and £252m related to adverse market movement offset by fund outperformance.

Comment

The Group is pleased to report a quarter of net inflows exceeding £0.5bn, resulting in annual net inflows of £1.9bn demonstrating that the momentum of net inflows over the past quarters has continued across a broad range of its fund strategies.

The quarter has brought significantly increased market volatility due to US inflationary concerns, the anticipation of the end of a prolonged recovery bull market cycle and increasing geo-political tension which have made the short-term market outlook less certain. Notwithstanding the above Polar is well placed to take advantage of market volatility given the breadth and compelling long-term performance of the firm's actively managed specialist investment strategies. 

The table below summarises the performance of the Group's Lipper ranked UCITS Fund AuM as at 31 March 2018 which make up 78% of Group AuM. Since inception, 99% of UCITS AuM is top quartile measured against the Lipper peer group and over five years 85% is first quartile with 13% of AuM in the second quartile. Over three years 78% is first quartile with 14% in the second quartile and over one year 62% is first quartile, 21% second quartile and 17% in the third and fourth quartiles.

Gavin Rochussen, Chief Executive, commented:

"Polar Capital has continued to deliver market beating performance for its clients and has benefitted from £1.9bn of net inflows for the year to 31 March 2018 lifting AuM by 29% from £9.3 bn to £12.0 bn.

As markets have become more volatile in the most recent quarter, Polar Capital's specialist actively managed funds have performed in line with expectations. The benefits of fundamental actively managed funds have been particularly well demonstrated in the significantly more volatile most recent quarter, with 82% of Group AuM performing ahead of benchmark.

With its broad range of specialist actively managed funds, Polar Capital is well placed to continue performing for its clients in what is likely to be a more volatile environment going forward."

Polar Capital will announce its results for the financial year to 31 March 2018 on the 25 June 2018.

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