Assets from Polar Capital are still trickling in over time, as a result of market declines, outflows, and poor performance.
Its quarterly AUM update shows that assets have decreased to £18.8 billion from £22.1 billion six months ago.
Net redemptions, fund closures, and poor market performance together reduced the firm’s total assets by £3.3 billion.
Open ended funds lost £753 million during the period, investment trusts lost £62 million, while segregated mandates finished the six months £30 million short.
Phaeacian mutual funds and an associated segregated mandate were wound up, resulting in the withdrawal of £380 million and £79 million from the open ended and segregated mandates, respectively, through fund closures.
Performance had the largest negative effect on the company, increasing losses by £2 billion.
Market fluctuations and fund performance caused open ended funds to lose £1.4 billion, investment trusts £611 million, and segregated mandates £66 million.
Despite this, accrued performance fees have more than doubled on the six-month total from last year, reaching £4.8 million for the period ending on September 30, 2022, up from £2 million at this time in 2021 and higher than £4.1 million at year’s end.
Gavin Rochussen, chief executive officer of Polar Capital, stated that while overall performance and flows had been poor, some business segments had experienced a very minor improvement.
He noted that there was still demand for and inflows into the Global Insurance, Biotechnology, Healthcare Blue Chip, Smart Energy, European ex-UK Income, Emerging Market Stars, Forager, and Global Absolute Return funds. Together, these funds saw net inflows of $260 million during the third quarter.
He said that the “bear market sell-off, net outflows, fund closures, and fund performance” were all to blame for the unfavorable swings, adding that the outflows in the company’s technology funds had started to diminish.
According to Rochussen, “during the quarter, the rate of outflows from the open-ended Technology funds continued to drop, with £252 million in outflows compared to £380 million in the prior quarter and £630 million in the first quarter of this calendar year.”
