Final Results

RNS Number : 7511Q

Polar Capital Holdings PLC

22 June 2015

 

POLAR CAPITAL HOLDINGS plc

Group Audited Results for the year ended 31 March 2015

Highlights

•    Assets under Management ('AUM') at 31 March 2015 US$12.3bn (2014: US$13.2bn)

•    Core operating profit excluding performance fees up 13% to £27.7m (2014: £24.6m)

•    Profit before share-based payments £33.7m (2014: £34.2m)

•    Pre-tax profit £31.1m (2014: £32.7m)

•    Basic earnings per share 27.46p (2014: 30.78p) and adjusted* diluted earnings per share 28.12p (2014: 29.04p)

•    Dividends for the year 25.0p per share (2014: 25.0p) including a second interim dividend of 19.5p per ordinary share to be paid on 17 July 2015 to shareholders on the register on 3 July 2015

•    Shareholders' funds £75.2m (2014: £74.2m) including a strong cash position

•    Addition of two new managers over the period resulting in the launch of the Polar Capital UK Absolute Equity UCITS fund in September 2014 and a long only UCITS Pan European Income fund in October 2014

•    Current AUM as at 29 May 2015 of US$ 12.6bn

*Adjusted to exclude cost of share-based payments.

Current Trading

Tim Woolley, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"This was our first financial year since the banking crisis in which we did not grow our AuM, which fell to $12.3bn from $13.2bn at the start of the year. We experienced inflows into a wide range of funds but we saw significant redemptions from our main Japan fund having had remarkable and unprecedented inflows in the previous year. We are though far from downbeat as the Company enters the new fiscal year and the opportunity ahead of us remains exciting and significant."

For further information please contact:

Polar Capital                                                         [phone] Tim Woolley (CEO) John Mansell (COO)  Canaccord Genuity - Nomad and Broker        [phone] Martin Green Cameron Duncan Camarco                                                                [phone] Ed Gascoigne-Pees Georgia Mann

Our Funds/Strategies

(In chronological order)

Assets Under Management

	As at 31 March 2015  $m	As at 31 March 2014 $m
Technology	2,037	1,793
Technology Trust plc	1,199	1,043
Global Technology UCITS Fund	838	750
Japan	3,743	5,629
Japan UCITS Fund*	3,612	5,478
Japan Alpha UCITS Fund	131	151
Europe	747	761
European Forager Hedge Fund	672	602
European Conviction Hedge Fund	75	159
Healthcare	1,503	1,184
Global Healthcare Growth & Income Trust plc	349	321
Healthcare Opportunities UCITS Fund	1,052	854
Biotechnology UCITS Fund	49	9
Healthcare Blue Chip UCITS Fund	53	-
Financials	1,035	1,063
Asian Financials UCITS Fund	53	46
Global Insurance UCITS Fund	526	582
Income Opportunities UCITS Fund	135	106
Financial Opportunities UCITS Fund	27	27
Global Financials Trust plc	294	302
Emerging Markets	783	832
Emerging Markets Growth UCITS Fund*	250	303
Emerging Markets Income UCITS Fund	533	529
Convertibles	313	103
ALVA Global Convertible Hedge Fund*	81	73
Global Convertible UCITS Fund	232	30
North American UCITS Fund	1,972	1,729
European Market Neutral Fund	-	70
European Market Neutral Hedge Fund	-	20
European Market Neutral UCITS Fund	-	50
Global Alpha UCITS Fund	100	85
UK Absolute Equity  UCITS Fund	11	-
European Income UCITS Fund	12	-
Total	12,256	13,249

* Including managed accounts run off the same strategy
 

Analysis of Changes in Asset Types for the 12 Months to 31 March 2015

	Long $m	Alternative $m	Total $m
Total assets as at 31 March 2014	12,315	934	13,249
Net subscriptions/(redemptions)	(2,228)	254	(1,974)
Closure of EMN team	-	(67)	(67)
Performance and currency movements	1,098	(50)	1,048
Total assets as at 31 March 2015	11,185	1,071	12,256

 

Chairman's Statement

This was our first financial year since the financial crisis in which we did not grow our AUM, which fell to $12.3bn from $13.2bn at the start of the year. We experienced inflows into a wide range of funds but we saw significant redemptions from our main Japan fund having had remarkable and unprecedented inflows in the previous year. Whilst disappointing at a headline level, the Company continued to make good progress in a number of areas and we remain optimistic about the opportunity ahead of us.

Results

Pre-tax profits before share based payments fell to £33.7m from £34.2m in the prior year. Core pre-tax profit increased from £24.6m to £27.7m. Net performance fees decreased from £7.6m to £5.2m although this was our fourteenth successive year of generating such fees.

Our balance sheet remains strong with net assets of £75m including net cash of £41.4m.

Market Background

This year proved a more challenging one in terms of markets than fiscal 2014. Through the first six months of the year markets made little progress and a number, like the UK and Japan, were actually in negative territory as market participants worried over the outlook for global growth. There were questions over the sustainability of the US economic recovery after the Federal Reserve's announcement that it would end quantative easing (QE); questions too over the Euro zone and its largely stagnant economies,  high unemployment and debt levels. China was continuing to slow and the Japanese economy had a setback over the summer as a result of the increased consumption tax imposed by the Abe government.

Adding to the economic worries was the ongoing escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and rising tensions between Russia and the West.

The second six months saw a marked improvement in sentiment as economic prospects around the globe improved considerably following the very sharp drop in the oil price. This gave a real boost to the global consumer and reduced inflationary pressures further. Sentiment was also boosted by the decision of the European Central Bank finally to implement QE. Although widely anticipated its eventual implementation was seen as an important commitment by the ECB to underpin the peripheral bond markets within the Euro zone.

Markets generally therefore had a good second half with the FTSE All Share Index finishing up 3% over our fiscal year and the Morgan Stanley World Index up 4.0%. Bigger gains were seen in the US where the Standard and Poor's 500 Index was up a healthy 10.4% whilst more spectacular gains still were seen in Japan where the Nikkei rallied sharply to finish up 29.5%!

Developments

Whilst in our last financial year we actually reduced the number of investment teams, we were back in expansion mode this year adding two new managers over the summer. The first addition was a UK absolute return manager Guy Rushton, ex Legal and General, who launched the Polar Capital UK Absolute Equity UCITS fund in September 2014. Guy is a young emerging manager with great potential and his fund has got off to a good start.

The second manager is another younger generation manager with great potential - Nick Davis, previously at Threadneedle, who joined us shortly after Guy. In October we launched his first fund, a long only UCITS Pan European Income fund, and this has also made a promising start. We will be launching a second fund for Nick at the start of July. This will be a European Income (ex UK) long only UCITS fund. Both funds offer considerable growth potential over the medium-term.

We may look to add a twelfth team in 2015 and ideally this would be a team oriented to institutional clients.  

Funds and Performance

The sizeable outflows from our main Japan UCITS fund together with some modest profit taking in the Global Insurance fund meant that our more moderate but well spread inflows failed to match our outflows this year. Nevertheless, we were pleased to see inflows into North America, Biotechnology, Healthcare Opportunities, GEM Income and GEM Growth, Income Opportunities and Global Alpha. We also launched another Healthcare product during the year - the Healthcare Blue Chip fund which was seeded by a client.

Fund performance on the long only side improved in general. However, the Japanese funds had a disappointing year although since our year end their performance is once again on an upward trend. The team's long-term performance remains exceptional.

11 of our 14 Lipper rated long only UCITS funds (with at least a 1 year track record) are over one year first or second quartile and our longer term performance numbers across our fund range remain strong. Over five years, four of our six UCITS funds are top decile and only one is outside the top quartile and we expect that to prove temporary.

Looking at performance since inception on our UCITS funds, all but two of the seventeen funds have outperformed their benchmarks net of all fees. This strong performance record is testimony to the merits of active management when done well.

Our three absolute return strategies enjoyed mixed results over the year. On the hedge fund side returns were muted although better returns were enjoyed by our two alternative UCITS products with the Global Convertible Bond (GCB) UCITS 3.6% above its index over the period and our newly launched UK Absolute Equity fund was up 7.1% to the end of March.

The strong performance of GCB has not gone unnoticed by investors and having seeded the fund originally ourselves with $10m in November 2013, I am pleased to report that the fund is now over $275m.

Awards

We were in receipt of numerous awards at a fund level over the year and my congratulations go to all the teams involved.

Of particular note were the awards to the European Forager hedge fund and to the Income Opportunities fund. Forager won the Best Equity Directional Hedge Fund over 10 years at the Hedge Fund Review 14th Annual European Single Manager Awards whilst Nick Brind won Best of Specialist Financials with his Income Opportunities fund at the annual Investment Week Fund Manager of the Year awards.

Lipper Rated Fund Performance

	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	Since inception
1st Quartile	6 funds	5 funds	5 funds	10 funds
2nd Quartile	5 funds	3 funds	-	3 funds
3rd Quartile	1 fund	1 fund	1 fund	1 fund
4th Quartile	2 funds	1 fund	-	-

Dividend

As previously stated the Board believes that the level of dividend should reflect the Company's trading results, its cash resources and also its future prospects. The total dividend for any year is always a distribution of the majority of the Group's total earnings for the year.

The Board has declared a second interim dividend of 19.5p (2014: 21p) to be paid in July 2015. Together with the interim dividend of 5.5p paid in January 2015 the total dividend for the year amounts to 25p, unchanged from the previous year.

Outlook

The outlook for global growth looks very similar to the outlook I envisaged when I wrote to you last year - steady growth with inflationary pressures remaining muted, although a note of caution must also be sounded over the macro risks which can adversely impact markets.

The fall in the oil price has underpinned the recovery in the US and made a significant difference in continental Europe where for the first time since 2010 the four largest economies in the Euro zone all managed to post quarterly growth in the first calendar quarter of this year. China's growth continues to slow although not as drastically as some doomsayers had predicted and the outlook for India continues to improve as does that of the world's third largest economy Japan. Here in the UK the outlook remains positive now the uncertainty of the General Election is behind us.

Markets are by no means cheap and are susceptible to a meaningful correction if central banks cannot manage to deflate at a measured rate the various bond market bubbles they have created in Western economies. Overall debt levels remain uncomfortably high in too many countries although there has been notable progress in some such as the US.

Ironically, aspects of banking legislation introduced in response to the last financial crisis may inadvertently lead to the next financial crisis. By restricting the deployment of banks' own capital quite severely, liquidity in a number of key markets notably the US treasury market has been much reduced. Unfortunately legislators and regulators around the globe do not always fully comprehend the consequences of their actions.

As always there are various geopolitical risks that could escalate and have a marked short-term impact on markets - North Korea, Russia/Ukraine and the Middle East all make the list again this year. No list would be complete without the ever present risk of another Euro crisis precipitated by a Greek default on their unsustainable debt level.

However, such events notwithstanding overall conditions for businesses in many parts of the world should be sufficiently favourable for good companies to grow their earnings further.We see a favourable market in which good active stockpickers can perform. We are hopeful that our Japanese business will stabilise over the coming months and that we can once again start to grow our AUM and profits given the many and varied fund opportunities we now have.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting will this year be held at our new offices at 16 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JD at 2.30pm on Wednesday 29 July 2015 and I would encourage shareholders to attend to meet the Directors.

Full details of the meeting are given in the separate Notice of Annual General Meeting.

Tom Bartlam

Chairman

19 June 2015

 

Chief Executive's Report

This is my sixth time of writing to you since I was appointed CEO in November 2009 and this will be the first time that I have written to you where we have not seen an increase in our AUM over the financial year. We are though far from downbeat as the Company enters the new fiscal year and the opportunity ahead of us remains exciting and significant.

We have continued to invest in the business over the last year, bringing in additional investment talent, further expanding distribution and adding customer service and marketing resource. On the operational side we remain well placed to meet the challenges of increased regulation and oversight from the regulatory authorities and the increased levels of due diligence being performed by clients. This combination is discouraging new entrants to the industry and will undoubtedly lead to further consolidation over the coming years.

Our strategy remains unchanged and if we deliver on investment performance across our product range then we have a $25bn plus opportunity with the existing teams and existing products. We still have scope to add one further team without altering our founding strategy, which has served us well so far and of course there is considerable scope to expand the existing teams and the products they offer.

Given the collection of investment talent we have now assembled there will also be scope to consider launching product that formally involves multiple teams in their management. We are therefore not short of opportunity and ideas as we enter our fifteenth year!

We have recently moved into new premises giving us the physical base to support further expansion of the business. Having spent ten years at our last offices one inevitably has cause to look back and reflect on one's time there.

During those ten years we encountered a remarkably wide range of economic and market conditions, from the strong economic growth and excesses of the bull market to the financial crash of 2008; which was comparable to the worst market conditions over the last one hundred years. This was then followed by a slow and erratic recovery in economies and markets, frequently punctuated by crises in Europe and various geopolitical flashpoints around the globe eventually giving way to the outlook described by our Chairman in his statement.

Despite what can only be described as a varied and challenging economic and market backcloth, your Company managed significant growth over the period. Our AUM increased fivefold, profits increased substantially as did the number of investment teams, their depth and the range of products they manage. Our growth though was not in a straight line and there were plenty of setbacks and periods of uncertainty over those ten years.

As well as giving cause for reflection an office move is good for a thorough sort through one's accumulated papers and files! It was during this process that I came across the original paper setting out our mission and founding philosophy. Whilst much has changed in our industry and in the world in general our mission and philosophy have not and they remain as appropriate today as they were when first written:

Our Mission

•  To deliver exceptional absolute and relative investment performance

•  To create and manage product designed to help our clients protect and build wealth

•  To develop and maintain long-term client relationships through the provision of timely and open communication and service

•  To maintain a robust and scaleable infrastructure of which an independent and comprehensive system of risk control is a critical component

Our Philosophy

•  Concentrate our resources on providing excellent risk adjusted returns on a consistent basis

•  Capping fund sizes at relatively modest levels to maximise returns to our clients

•  Focus product development in areas that meet the evolving needs of a diversified client base

•  Provide an environment that attracts and retains the highest calibre of performance oriented professional

•  Conduct our business with the highest professional and ethical standards.

We remain firmly committed to active fund management based on fundamental research and we continue to seek to serve that section of clients who are seeking superior long-term outperformance from their funds. The growth in passive strategies continues to be strong and remains complementary to our own efforts for that segment of clients where certainty of returns and near term costs have to be balanced against the potential for substantially higher albeit less certain returns from a portfolio of purely active funds.

The longer term merits of an actively managed fund done well are well illustrated by reference to our main Japanese UCITS fund. If a client had invested £100,000 in that fund ten years ago it would now be worth £178,800 after all costs. If the client had invested that same amount in the benchmark ETF it would be worth £133,600. Although the client would have saved on fees he would actually be materially worse off. In the end it is a matter of personal preference on the degree one is focused on the costs of a product versus the net money outcome. We see the mass market increasingly gravitating to the former whilst the high end market is likely to remain focused on investment outcomes and net returns or some balancing of the two approaches.

We do not have the marketing resource, the technological scale or the product capacity to play in the mass market. We see that as increasingly the domain of the passive suppliers and the very large global asset managers. These suppliers will look to increasing volumes to offset ever lower prices, as price is the only real way of differentiating a passive offering or an 'active' fund hugging an index over the longer term despite the claims to the contrary of the marketing dollars. As with other industries where 'manufacturing scale' and marketing spend are critical to success, further consolidation will be inevitable and I expect the handful of large American passive suppliers to further increase their market share and consolidate the industry still further - the possibility of a duopoly of supply for passive products over the medium-term cannot be discounted should present trends continue.

It will be interesting to see how the regulators respond to such a concentration of supply of investment products and the danger of 'too big to fail' coming to the heart of the asset management industry for the mass market.

We will remain focused on the high end market. For further success in this increasingly global market segment we will need to continue to execute on the following: 1) deliver superior investment performance; 2) expand our distribution capability whilst maintaining a high level of client service and support; 3) maintain and expand our operational infrastructure ensuring integrity, robustness and transparency at all times; 4) maintain and expand our independent investment risk and regulatory compliance monitoring and systems. We believe we have the capabilities to deliver on all these areas and the financial strength to continue to invest and withstand any setbacks in the economic and market environment comparable to those experienced over the last ten years.

I would like to close by thanking our clients for their continued trust in us and to thank our many shareholders for their loyal support and of late, patience. Finally, I would like to thank all our staff for their unstinting commitment, hard work, passion and professionalism over the last twelve months. We look forward to the year ahead.

T.J.Woolley

Chief Executive

19 June 2015

Financial Review

Results of the year

The results for the year can be summarised as follows: profits for the year are similar to last year's with slightly higher revenues being offset by slightly higher costs. The analysis below explains the reasons for each variance, starting with revenues.

Revenues	31 March 2015 £'m	31 March 2014 £'m
Net management fees (net of commissions and fees payable)	75.0	66.3
Performance fees	12.2	19.2
Other income	0.8	2.1
Total revenues	£88.0m	£87.6m

Despite the year on year fall in AUM (31 March 2015: US$12.3bn versus 31 March 2014: US$13.2bn) the average AUM over the year was higher than the average AUM over the previous year. This accounts for the increase in net management fees received over the year. The decrease in performance fees received is a reflection of the general disappointing performance of some of the Group's products over the calendar year. Fortunately by the financial year end, notable improvement was evident. The reduction in other income is also a function of the generally weaker performance of some of the Group's products, as that income is a product of the profits that are generated from the Group's seeding program.

 

Costs	31 March 2015 £'m	31 March 2014 £'m
Salaries, bonuses and other staff costs	16.7	15.9
Core distributions	19.5	16.7
Core cash compensation costs	36.2	32.6
NIC on share options	1.9	1.0
Other operating costs	9.1	8.0
Core operating costs	47.2	41.6
Performance fee interests	7.1	11.6
Total operating costs	£54.3m	£53.2m

The small increase in total operating costs to £54.3m from £53.2m masks a number of 'overs and unders'.

In the year the fall in performance fee interests to £7.1m from £11.6m in 2014 (directly correlated to the reduction in performance fee revenues) was more than counterbalanced by an increase in firstly and most materially compensation costs (2015: £36.2m versus 2014: £32.6m) and also secondly some increase in other operating costs (2015: £9.1m versus 2014: £8.0m).

The increase in salaries, bonuses and other staff costs was a function of the increase in head count in the firm both on the investment side and in support areas.

The increase in core distributions was a function of the increase in management fee revenues and the management fee profitability of the firm.

For the first time the National Insurance cost relating to the Group's conventional share options has been split out from the 'other operating cost' line. This cost is sufficiently material to warrant separate identification. The cost in a year is a function of the total cost of employers NIC that would be payable on share options that either have vested in the year or are able to vest at the balance sheet date. Any increase in provision is predominantly a function of the increased quantity of options that are able to vest in the year. The cost is also sensitive to the company's share price. At the current share price the cost for the next 12 months is expected to revert to last year's cost of £1.0m compared to this year's £1.9m.

Over half of the increase in operating costs to £9.1m from £8.0m is a function of a full year of Bloomberg terminals being charged to the profit and loss account. Looking forward we have signalled that the recent move into our new premises will result, from April 2015, in a £1m per annum increase in rent and rates which are included within other operating costs.

 

Profits	31 March 2015 £'m	31 March 2014 £'m
Core operating profit	27.7	24.6
Performance fee profit	5.2	7.6
Other income	0.8	2.0
Profit before share-based payments and tax	33.7	34.2
Share-based payments	(2.6)	(1.5)
Profit before tax	£31.1m	£32.7m

The headline profit before tax for the year has decreased to £31.1m from last year's £32.7m.

The Board believes that the best measure of the Group's profitability is the profit before share based payments (as detailed more fully below) and tax. On this basis the Group has delivered £33.7m of profits against last year's £34.2m. The analysis of the different components of profits shows that:

•  Core operating profits

the increase in profits reflects the rise in management fee revenues driven by the increase in average value of assets managed over the year.

•  Performance fee profits

weaker performance across the product range compared to 2014 has resulted in the reduction in performance fee profits.

•  Other income

the weaker fund performance was also reflected in the company's seed investments delivering a reduced contribution.

Share-based payments

The face of the consolidated income statement includes a line titled 'share-based payments' which accounts for a charge of £2.6m (2014: £1.5m). The figures are broken down as follows:

	31 March 2015 £'m	31 March 2014 £'m
Cost attributed to preference shares	1.6	0.6
Cost attributed to conventional options	1.0	0.9
Total cost of share-based payments	£2.6m	£1.5m

The increase in this charge is dominated by the increase in the charge associated with the group's preference shares (see below).

 

Earnings per share

The effect that the charge for share-based payments has on the EPS figures of the Group is as follows:

	31 March 2015 Pence	31 March 2014 Pence
Diluted earnings per share	25.4	27.4
Impact of share- based payments	2.7	1.6
Adjusted diluted earnings per share	28.1p	29.0p

Preference shares

A separate class of preference share is issued by Polar Capital Partners Limited for purchase by each new team of fund managers on their arrival at the Group. These shares provide each manager with an economic interest in the funds that they run and ultimately enable the manager to convert their interest in the revenues generated from their funds into equity in Polar Capital Holdings plc. The equity is awarded in return for the forfeiture of their current core economic interest and vests over three years with the full quantum of the dilution being reflected in the diluted share count (and so diluted EPS) from the point of conversion. The event has been designed to be, at both the actual and the diluted levels, earnings enhancing to shareholders.

In the year to 31 March 2015 there were no new conversions of preference shares into Polar Capital Holdings equity, whereas in the year to March 2014 one conversion was initiated. The product of the 2014 event was that a total of 1.39m shares were to be issued of which 0.98m shares have been issued as at 31 March 2015. The remaining 0.41m shares will be issued on 31 March 2016. Simultaneous to the initial commitment to issue these new shares in Polar Capital Holdings plc the recipient of the shares has forfeited a fixed economic interest in the business unit to which the shares were associated amounting to a value of £0.5m per annum.

As at 31 March 2015 three additional sets of preference shares have the ability to call for a conversion. The call has to be made on or before 30 November 2015 if any conversion is to take place with effect from 31 March 2015. It is the relative success and profitability of the funds represented by these three sets of preference share that accounts for the increased cost attributed to preference shares identified above (2015: £1.6m versus 2014: £0.6m).

Balance sheet and cash

At the year end the cash balances of the Group were £41.4m (2014: £47.0m). The decrease was mainly a product of additional seed investments made in the period and also some capital expenditure refurbishing the new offices that the firm occupied in April 2015.

At the balance sheet date the Group held £51.7m of seed investments in its funds (2014: £43.9m).

Capital management

The Group believes in retaining a strong balance sheet. The capital that is retained in the business is used to either seed new investment products or if not so required is invested into the Group's absolute return funds as investment capital. As at March 2015 there were no pure investments, but £51.7m of the Group's balance sheet was invested to seed funds. The majority of the interest and investment revenues in the year were a product of this seeding program, where £3.7m of profits were produced from the mark to market of investments and the associated currency hedging while £2.9m of losses were a function of the mark to market losses made on the long only investment hedging program.

The Group's dividend policy is to distribute the majority of its earnings.

Business risk

There are a number of risks and uncertainties faced by the Group which are more fully described later in this Strategic Report. Amongst the major risks to the business strategy is the loss of assets under management due to markets falling, poor investment performance or the loss of key investment personnel. These events will not only have an immediate impact on the management fees earned by the Group but also deprive the Group of possible performance fees.

Going concern

The Financial Reporting Council has determined that all companies should carry out a rigorous assessment of all the factors affecting the business in deciding to adopt a going concern basis for the preparation of the accounts.

The Directors have reviewed and examined the financial and other processes embedded in the business, in particular the annual budget process and the financial stress testing inherent in the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process ('ICAAP'). On the basis of such review and the significant liquid assets underpinning the balance sheet relative to the Group's predictable operating cost profile, the Directors consider that the adoption of a going concern basis, covering a period of at least 12 months from the date of this report, is appropriate.

John Mansell

Finance Director

19 June 2015

 

Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss for the year ended 31 March 2015

	31 March 2015 £'000	31 March 2014 £'000
Revenue	96,225	91,807
Other income	801	2,061
Gross income	97,026	93,868
Commissions and fees payable	(8,977)	(6,327)
Net income	88,049	87,541
Operating costs before share-based payments	(54,366)	(53,274)
Operating profit before share-based payments, amortisation/impairment and tax	33,683	34,267
Share-based payments	(2,557)	(1,468)
Profit for the year before tax	31,126	32,799
Taxation	(7,251)	(7,765)
Profit for the year attributable to ordinary shareholders	23,875	25,034
Basic earnings per ordinary share	27.46p	30.78p
Diluted earnings per ordinary share	25.40p	27.43p
Adjusted diluted earnings per ordinary share (Non GAAP measure)	28.12p	29.04p

All of the items in the above statements are derived from continuing operations.

 

Consolidated Statement of Other Comprehensive Income for the year ended 31 March 2015

	31 March 2015  £'000	31 March 2014 £'000
Profit for the year attributable to ordinary shareholders	23,875	25,034
Other comprehensive income - items that may be reclassified to profit or loss in subsequent periods
Net gain on the revaluation of available-for-sale financial assets	-	(384)
Reclassification of losses on available-for-sale financial assets	285	-
Deferred tax effect	(57)	80
	228	(304)
Net movement on cash flow hedges	(2,311)	1,859
Current tax effect	-	(129)
Deferred tax effect	552	(353)
	(1,759)	1,377
Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations	5	-
Total comprehensive income for the year, net of tax, attributable to ordinary shareholders	22,349	26,107

 

Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 31 March 2015

	31 March 2015 £'000	31 March 2014 £'000
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment	2,007	94
Deferred tax assets	5,136	7,472
Total non-current assets	7,143	7,566
Current assets
Available for sale financial assets	-	43,912
Assets at fair value through profit or loss	38,071	-
Assets held for sale	13,614	-
Trade and other receivables	9,334	9,675
Other financial assets	-	654
Cash and cash equivalents	41,385	47,041
Total current assets	102,404	101,282
Total assets	109,547	108,848
Non-current liabilities
Deferred tax liabilities	102	221
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables	26,276	29,484
Other financial liabilities	5,357	1,965
Current tax liabilities	2,581	3,008
Total current liabilities	34,214	34,457
Total liabilities	34,316	34,678
Net assets	75,231	74,170
Capital and reserves
Issued share capital	2,232	2,184
Share premium	16,715	16,288
Investment in own shares	(962)	(1,017)
Capital and other reserves	6,665	9,650
Retained earnings	50,581	47,065
Total equity - attributable to ordinary shareholders	75,231	74,170

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity for the year ended 31 March 2015

	Issued share capital £'000	Share premium £'000	Investment in own shares £'000	Capital reserves £'000	Other reserves £'000	Retained earnings £'000	Total equity £'000
As at 1 April 2013	2,062	16,094	(1,017)	219	3,629	32,776	53,763
Profit for the year	-	-	-	-	-	25,034	25,034
Other comprehensive income	-	-	-	-	1,073	-	1,073
Total comprehensive income	-	-	-	-	1,073	25,034	26,107
Dividends	-	-	-	-	-	(12,175)	(12,175)
Issue of shares	46	194	-	-	-	(38)	202
Issue of share capital against preference shares	76	-	-	(76)	-	-	-
Share-based payment	-	-	-	-	-	1,468	1,468
Current tax in respect of employee share options	-	-	-	-	1,874	-	1,874
Deferred tax in respect of employee share options	-	-	-	-	2,931	-	2,931
As at 1 April 2014	2,184	16,288	(1,017)	143	9,507	47,065	74,170
Profit for the year	-	-	-	-	-	23,875	23,875
Other comprehensive income	-	-	-	-	(1,526)	-	(1,526)
Total comprehensive income	-	-	-	-	(1,526)	23,875	22,349
Dividends	-	-	-	-	-	(22,891)	(22,891)
Issue of shares	38	427	55	-	-	(25)	495
Issue of share capital against preference shares	10	-	-	(10)	-	-	-
Share-based payment	-	-	-	-	-	2,557	2,557
Current tax in respect of employee share options	-	-	-	-	1,565	-	1,565
Deferred tax in respect of employee share options	-	-	-	-	(3,014)	-	(3,014)
As at 31 March 2015	2,232	16,715	(962)	133	6,532	50,581	75,231

 

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement for the year ended 31 March 2015

	31 March 2015 £'000	31 March 2014 £'000
Cash flows generated from operating activities
Cash generated from operations	27,300	43,715
Proceeds from sale of assets at fair value through profit or loss	10,354	-
Purchase of assets at fair value through profit or loss	(13)	-
Tax paid	(6,454)	(6,140)
Net cash inflow generated from operating activities	31,187	37,575
Investing activities
Interest received	18	39
Purchase of property, plant and equipment	(1,995)	(68)
Proceeds from sale of available for sale financial assets	-	56,257
Purchase of available for sale financial assets	-	(65,730)
Purchase of assets held for sale	(12,470)	-
Net cash outflow used in investing activities	(14,447)	(9,502)
Financing activities
Equity dividends paid	(22,891)	(12,175)
Issue of share capital	440	203
Receipts in relation to investment in own shares	55	-
Net cash outflow from financing activities	(22,396)	(11,972)
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents	(5,656)	16,101
Cash and cash equivalents at start of the year	47,041	30,940
Cash and cash equivalents at end of the year	41,385	47,041

 

Selected notes to the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2014

Principal Accounting Policies

General

Polar Capital Holdings plc (the 'Company') is a public limited company registered in England and Wales whose shares are traded on the Alternative Investment Market ("AIM") of the London Stock Exchange.

The principal accounting policies applied in the preparation of these consolidated financial statements are set out below.

Basis of preparation

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared on a going concern basis in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the European Union and the Companies Act 2006 applicable to companies reporting under IFRS.

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, modified by the measurement at fair value of financial instruments at fair value through profit or loss and derivative financial instruments. The consolidated financial statements are presented in Sterling and all values are rounded to the nearest thousand (£'000), except when otherwise stated.

The Company financial statements have been prepared in accordance with UK GAAP and under the historical cost convention. No profit or loss account is presented for the Company as permitted under section 408 of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis of consolidation

The consolidated financial statements of the Group comprise the financial statements of the Company and its subsidiaries as at 31 March 2015. Subsidiaries are those entities over which the Group has control. The Group controls an investee if, and only if, the Group has:

•   Power over the investee;

•   Exposure, or rights, to variable returns from its involvement with the investee;

•   The ability to use its power over the investee to affect returns.

The Group considers all relevant facts and circumstances in assessing whether it is acting as an agent or a principal for its holdings in its seed capital investments. The Group considers the overall relationship between itself and an investee including the scope of its decision making authority over the investee, the removal rights held by other parties, the remuneration to which it is entitled and its overall exposure to variability of returns from its holdings. Where the Group concludes it is acting as principal the entity is consolidated.

The Group re-assesses whether or not it controls an investee if facts and circumstances indicate that there are changes to one or more of the three elements of control. Subsidiaries are fully consolidated from the date on which the Group obtains control, and continue to be consolidated until the date when such control ceases.

The financial statements of the subsidiaries are prepared for the same reporting period as the parent company and where necessary, adjustments are made to the financial statements of the subsidiaries to bring their accounting policies in line with those of the Group. All intra-group transactions, balances, income and expenses are eliminated on consolidation.

 

Reclassification

On initial designation of the Group's seed investments in a prior period these were, at the time, classified as available for sale with subsequent fair value movements recognised in equity. As these seed investments are always acquired for the purpose of selling or repurchasing in the near term these have this year been reclassified as financial assets at fair value through profit or loss and fair value movements recognised in the statement of profit or loss.

This reclassification does not give rise to adjustments that are material, either individually or cumulatively, in the Group's financial statements for comparative periods and accordingly the adjustment has not been made to the prior period.

Operating Segments

The Group is a specialist investment management group offering professional and institutional investors a range of geographical and sector investment opportunities. The Group's assets under management are separated into products and services but as the strategic and financial management decisions are determined centrally, by the Chief Executive, the Group only has one class of business, being the provision of investment management and advisory services. The Group's revenue generating operations are in London, with small offices in Tokyo, Jersey, Connecticut and Geneva that do not generate any revenue.

Geographical analysis of income (based on the residency of source)

	31 March 2015 £'000	31 March 2014 £'000
UK	10,054	9,213
Ireland	70,952	61,898
Cayman	13,592	18,952
Europe	1,467	1,718
Profit on forward currency contracts	160	26
	96,225	91,807

Analysis of income by type of fees

	31 March 2015 £'000	31 March 2014 £'000
Investment management fees	83,811	72,586
Investment performance fees	12,254	19,195
Profit on forward currency contracts	160	26
	96,225	91,807

 

Earnings per Ordinary Share

The calculation of basic earnings per ordinary share is based on the profit for the year of £23,873,443 (2014: £25,034,315) and on 86,924,177 (2014: 81,333,171) ordinary shares, being the weighted number of ordinary shares.

The calculation of diluted earnings per ordinary share is based on the profit of the year of £23,873,443 (2014: £25,034,315) and 94,000,334 (2014: 91,273,900) ordinary shares, being the weighted average number of ordinary shares allowing for all options of 7,076,157 (2014: 9,940,725) which are dilutive.

The calculation of adjusted earnings per ordinary share is based on profit for the year of £23,873,443 but adjusted for the cost of share-based payments of £2,557,462 (2014: profit of £25,034,315 adjusted for the cost of share-based payments of £1,467,900) and 94,000,334 (2014: 91,273,900) ordinary shares being the weighted average number of ordinary shares allowing for all dilutive options.

As at 31 March 2015, the fully diluted number of ordinary shares which would be in issue is 95,191,410 (2014: 95,584,600) shares, if all outstanding options were exercised.

 

Status of results announcement

The Board of Directors approved this results announcement on 19 June 2015. Whilst the financial information included in this results announcement has been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as endorsed by the European Union, this announcement does not itself contain sufficient information to comply with all the disclosure requirements of IFRS and does not constitute statutory accounts of the Group for the years ended 31 March 2015 or 31 March 2014.

The financial information has been extracted from the statutory accounts of the Company for the years ended 31 March 2015 and 31 March 2014. The auditors reported on those accounts; their reports were unqualified and did not contain a statement under either Section 498 (2) or Section 498 (3) of the Companies Act 2006 and did not include references to any matters to which the auditor drew attention by way of emphasis.

The statutory accounts for the year ended 31 March 2014 have been delivered to the Registrar of Companies, whereas those for the year ended 31 March 2015 will be delivered to the Registrar of Companies following the Company's Annual General Meeting.

Copies of Report and Accounts

The full annual report and accounts will be posted to shareholders in June 2015 and copies will be available thereafter from the Company Secretary at the Company's Registered Office, 16 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JD (020 7227 2700) or from the Company's website at www.polarcapital.co.uk

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting will be held at 2.30pm on 28 July 2015 at the offices of the Company at 16 Palace Street, London SW1E 5JD

Directors

T H Bartlam	Non executive Chairman
T J Woolley	Chief Executive Officer
J B Mansell	Chief Operating Officer
H G C Aldous	Non executive director, Chairman of Audit Committee
M W Thomas	Non executive director, Chairman of Remuneration Committee
B J D Ashford-Russell	Non executive director
J M B Cayzer-Colvin	Non executive director
G V Bumeder	Non executive director

Forward looking statements

This results announcement contains certain forward looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and businesses and plans for Polar Capital Holdings plc.  These statements and forecasts involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend upon circumstances that have not yet occurred.  There are a number of different factors that could cause actual results or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward looking statements.  Nothing in this statement should be construed as a profit forecast.

The release, publication, transmission or distribution of this announcement in jurisdictions other than the United Kingdom may be restricted by law and therefore persons in such jurisdictions into which this announcement is released, published, transmitted or distributed should inform themselves about and observe such restrictions. Any failure to comply with the restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.

Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from the hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into or forms part of this announcement.

 

END

 

 

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