Polar Capital Appoints CIO From JOHCM

The boutique manager announced the hire in a stockmarket update alongside its quarterly trading statement this morning.

Black joined JOHCM in 2010 from Insight Investment, but left his role as investment director last February. 

The group commented on the appointment: "The role will entail protecting clients' interests via independent review of Polar's investment teams as well as contributing to Polar's growth through the identification and selection of new investment strategies."

Black and Polar Capital CEO Gavin Rochussen used to be colleagues, as the latter was chief executive at JOHCM for eight years until joining Polar in 2017. 

Polar Capital launches global absolute return fund

Meanwhile, in its wider results, the firm reported a jump in AUM from £12bn at the end of March 2018 to £12.7bn nine months later on 31 December 2018.

This increase was driven by total net subscriptions of £646m over the period, while market movements only contributed £31m.

However, in the latest quarter the group reported outflows of £286m, while AUM during those three months dropped by £1.77bn compared to the end of Q3 2018. 

Despite this, Polar managed to hold onto most of the performance fees accrued at the end of September, reaching a net performance fee profit of £23.6m at year-end, compared to £15m for the previous year.