Clients withdrew £900m from three of the longest established funds at Polar Capital in the three months to the end of September, contributing to £600m net outflows at the firm.
A big chunk of the withdrawals - £400 - came from the Polar Capital Japan fund, which saw its fund manager leave during the quarter.
Another £500m was withdrawn from the firm’s best known products, its technology and healthcare opportunities funds.
The company’s chief executive Gavin Rochussen said: “In the six months two long-standing clients redeemed in excess of £500m from two of our highly rated funds, the Polar Capital Technology Fund and the Polar Capital Healthcare Opportunities Fund to take profits and reduce risk in their underlying client portfolios.
"This has provided the Technology and Healthcare strategies with additional capacity where the demand for their funds is robust.
"Notwithstanding the £900m headwind created by the Japan Fund redemptions and the client redemption from Technology and Healthcare, it is reassuring that, despite the economic and political uncertainty over the last six months, we have had net inflows into the majority of our funds including: Global Insurance, UK Value, European Income and Emerging Market and Asia with positive net inflows of £112m into our alternative fund range which includes our Convertibles and UK Absolute products.”
Polar Capital’s assets under management at the end of September 2019 were £14.3bn, an increase of £500m on the £13.8bn at the end of March, due to positive performance from the funds.
Mr Rochussen said: “We remain confident that our active fundamental fund strategies will continue to deliver above average returns over the long term for our clients."
david.thorpe@ft.com
