Polar Capital’s (POLR) recovery – which was first sewn in late 2016 – has now taken root. The specialist asset manager gained £1.9bn in net inflows during the year to March, which along with £800m of market gains, took assets under management up more than a quarter to £12bn. That had increased to £13.4bn by the end of May.
Performance fee revenue – based on a percentage of investment performance achieved relative to certain benchmarks – reached a record high, jumping to £36m from just £3m in the prior year. Out of Polar's 22 funds, 16 gained net inflows, with the recently launched UK value opportunities strategy leading the way.
The Japan funds and European forager fund continued to fall out of favour with investors, suffering net outflows of £34m and £63m, respectively. However, management said the level of redemptions was down on the prior year, while the latter fund gained a significant institutional mandate after the financial year ended. The emerging markets income strategy was another weak spot, with net outflows of £191m across the Ucits funds and a separate account mandate.
Analysts at Peel Hunt expect adjusted pre-tax profits of £48.3m for the year to March 2019, giving EPS of 37.4p (up from £46.4m and 36.6p in FY2018).
| POLAR CAPITAL HOLDINGS (POLR) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 704p | MARKET VALUE: | £658m | |
| TOUCH: | 690-704p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 704p | LOW: 405p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 4.0% | PE RATIO: | 19 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 94p | NET CASH: | £87.9m | |
| Year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2014 | 91.8 | 32.8 | 30.8 | 25 |
| 2015 | 96.2 | 31.1 | 27.5 | 25 |
| 2016 | 84.2 | 23.6 | 20.5 | 25 |
| 2017 | 73.8 | 20.4 | 17.8 | 25 |
| 2018 | 134 | 41.3 | 36.4 | 28 |
| % change | +82 | +102 | +104 | +12 |
| Ex-div: | 5 Jul | |||
| Payment: | 27 Jul |
