InvestmentsApr 14 2016

Japan pushes Polar Capital outflows to £620m

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
Japan pushes Polar Capital outflows to £620m

Polar Capital’s quarterly update has shown net outflows of £620m in the 12 months to March 31 2016.

This combined with negative market movements of £386m has seen total assets fall by £1bn to £7.3bn in the 12 month period.

The firm acknowledged in the update that its AUM had slipped almost 10 per cent in the three months from the end of December, and 12 per cent since March 2015, attributing the fall to “disappointing” performance and outflows from its Japan fund.

It explained: “Since Abenomics the process that the team deploys has not been able to deliver comparable returns and indeed has underperformed the market by a considerable margin over this period.

“The team remain committed to their process and believe at some point the approach will once again deliver significant outperformance for those clients who have an investment horizon beyond the current extreme volatility in Japan.”

The firm noted, however, that it is seeing inflows and interest from clients across a “breadth of product”, adding that once the Japanese business stabilises “we can once again start growing our AUM and profits”.

It confirmed the recruitment of George Godber and Georgina Hamilton from Miton, as revealed by Investment Adviser last week, and plans to focus on attracting additional teams to the business.

“We are revising for the first time in 15 years, our targeted number of teams from 10 to 12 to a new range of 12 to 15.

“We have spent a number of years building up our operational support structure within Polar Capital and this now means we have the necessary resource to offer additional teams the highest level of support, whilst maintaining the culture of our group.”

Meanwhile the group confirmed that although the assets under management “are less than had been anticipated” it expects to maintain the dividend at last year’s level.