InvestmentsApr 11 2019

Market movements boost Aum of Polar Capital

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Market movements boost Aum of Polar Capital

The assets under management of Polar Capital rose 15 per cent in the year to the end of March 2019, driven largely by positive movements from asset prices.

In an update released to the market this morning (April 11) the company stated it had assets under management of £13.8bn at the end of March, compared with £12bn at the end of March 2018, with market movements contributing £1.3bn of the increase.

The positive investment returns were enough to generate performance fees of £23.6m.

But the headline numbers masked a turbulent year for the company, with the Aum fluctuating wildly, reaching £14.7bn at the end of September 2018, followed by outflows of more than £200m in the month of December alone.

There were net outflows of an average of £30m a month for the first three months of 2019, but the company stated for April so far, there have been net inflows.

Gavin Rochussen, chief executive of Polar Capital, said: "Polar Capital has had a year of two halves with strong growth in Aum through net inflows, performance and markets in the first half followed by reduced risk appetite for our specialist fund strategies following the global sell-off and market correction in October and December of 2018.

"Net flows have stabilised and funds have continued to perform in line with our expectation, with 76 per cent of the group's Aum ahead of their benchmarks annualised over three years to 31 March 2019. In the last quarter, the majority of AUM and fund strategies outperformed their respective benchmarks."

david.thorpe@ft.com