Industry Updates

Polar Capital AuM increase by 53% to $3.8bn, long-only funds gain, hedge funds lose

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Tweet
Print
Email
Track Keywords

Tim Woolley Opalesque Industry Update - On the back of performance and inflows, London-listed investment manager Polar Capital , which manages 16 funds and 5 managed accounts, ended the year in a better position than at the end of the previous twelve-month period.

The firm reported today an increase of 53% in its assets under management (AuM) to more than $3.87bn in the twelve-month period to March 2011.

AuM for its long-only funds went up from $1.57bn in March 2010 to $3.10bn in March 2011; and AuM for its hedge funds went down from $955m in March 2010 to $771m in March 2011.

“This increase in AUM was achieved despite the closure of the Polar Capital Discovery Fund, which accounted for a significant proportion of outflows in our hedge fund franchise over the reported periods,” the report said.

The Discovery fund, a Caymans-registered global macro hedge fund, closed in January 2011. The firm, preferring to cut its losses rather than risking the markets, returned all money to investors, suffering a small investment loss in the process.

Polar wants to continue expanding its product range through both hiring and acquiring new teams, which is expected to drive future AuM growth. The firm could not offer Opalesque further comment on this expansion plan.

Polar’s CEO Tim Woolley said in June last year that the firm was looking to acquire or recruit new teams and double its number of strategies by 2013, as consolidation in the sector increases.

So in September, Polar acquired HIM Capital Holdings Limited, a specialist long-only fund manager which had approximately $230m of AuM. And William Calvert and his Axa Framlington emerging markets team joined Polar Capital in October.

B. Gravrand

Article link