AUM Update

RNS Number : 3945M

Polar Capital Holdings PLC

13 October 2016

 

13 October 2016                                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").

Group AUM (unaudited)

Polar Capital reports that as at 30 September 2016 its AUM were £7.7bn compared to £7.3bn at the end of March 2016.

AUM movement in six months to 30 September 2016	USD			GBP
	Long only Funds	Alternative funds	Total	Long only funds	Alternative funds	Total
AUM at 31 March 2016	$9,378m	$1,054m	$10,432m	£6,531m	£734m	£7,265m
Net subscriptions / (redemptions)	$(1,121)m	$60m	$(1,061)m	£(816)m	£44m	£(772)m
Market movement and performance	$581m	$(14)m	$567m	£1,098m	£70m	£1,168m
Total AUM at 30 September 2016	$8,838m	$1,100m	$9,938m	£6,813m	£848m	£7,661m

Comment

Whilst it is pleasing to see our AUM, in sterling terms, higher than at the year end, this has been almost entirely due to the weakness in sterling since the Brexit vote and the healthy rise in global markets over the last few months. We have continued to experience net fund outflows over the period, predominantly from our Japan UCITS fund, although we also experienced outflows in a number of other funds particularly in July in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.

Our Japan funds have now fallen to 14% of AUM although we would anticipate further outflows if the team's approach continues to remain out of favour. Despite the disappointing performance over the last five years the fund remains top decile in its peer group since launch and we believe those investors who can take the longer term view will be rewarded over time from current levels.

Over our first six months for this financial year the overall backdrop for flows into equity funds has remained poor in both the UK and Continental Europe.  Industry data indicates that outflows from long only equity funds in July were in excess of those experienced at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. Despite this unhelpful background, we have been encouraged by increased interest in a number of our UCITS strategies including Technology, Healthcare, Insurance, UK Absolute, Global Convertible Bond and European ex-UK Income.

It is encouraging to note that at the end of September nine of our funds were in performance fee territory.

Net performance fees (unaudited)                      

The table below sets out the position relating to net performance fees (after the deduction of staff interests) earned and accrued in the first six months of the Group's financial year. The majority of the Group's performance fees crystallise in the second half of the financial year.

Performance fees net of staff allocations	Six months to 30 Sept 15	Year to 31 Mar 16 (year-end)	Six months to 30 Sept 16
Received	£0.0m	£3.0m	£0.0m
Accrued but not yet earned in funds with year ends on or before the financial year end	£3.9m	n/a	£2.8m
Total net performance fees	£3.9m	£3.0m	£2.8m

For further information please contact:

Polar Capital Tim Woolley (CEO) John Mansell (COO)	[phone]
Canaccord Genuity - Nomad and Joint Broker Simon Bridges  (QE) Andrew Buchanan Kit Stephenson	[phone]
Peel Hunt - Joint Broker Guy Wiehahn	[phone]
Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees	[phone]

 

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