Polar Capital Holdings plc
(“Polar Capital” or “the Group”)
Unaudited interim results for six months ended 30 September 2019
Summary of Results
Financial
- Assets under Management (“AuM”) at 30 September 2019 were £14.3bn (31 March 2019: £13.8bn) – net fund outflows of £0.4bn offset by market uplift and fund performance of £0.9bn
- Core operating profit†, excluding performance fees, £21.3m (30 September 2018: £21.7m)
- Operating profit before share-based payments on preference shares† £25.4m (30 September 2018: £27.7m)
- Pre-tax profit £24.9m (30 September 2018: £27.3m)
- Basic earnings per share 21.6p (30 September 2018: 24.3p) and adjusted diluted earnings per share† 19.8p (30 September 2018: 21.9p)
- Interim dividend per ordinary share of 8.0p (January 2019: 8.0p) declared to be paid in January 2020
- Shareholders' funds £103.6m (30 September 2018: £83.9m) including cash and investments of £108.7m (30 September 2018: £105.3m)
† The non-GAAP measures shown here are described on the Alternate Performance Measures (APMs) page.
Current Trading
- AuM at 31 October 2019 were £14.0bn
- Net performance fee profit marked to market at 31 October 2019 was £3.8m, which included net crystallised performance fees of £3.3m (30 September 2019: £4.2m; £3.3m respectively).
Gavin Rochussen, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“The past six months have been challenging. Active equity strategies have seen continued outflows, and equity funds as a whole have experienced record outflows into bonds, but these have been dwarfed by buy-backs and M&A which have supported public markets. Positioning and sentiment surveys remain cautious, with reported cash positions at high levels and equities underweight.
“Despite overall net outflows over the past six months, we have had net inflows into most of our funds.
“With our diverse and differentiated range of sector and regional long-only and alternative strategies with an entrenched performance led culture, we believe that we are well placed to continue delivering above average returns for our clients and, as a consequence, compelling returns for our shareholders over the long term.”