Polar Capital Global Financials Trust has published its accounts for the year ended 30 November 2014. over that period the net asset value total return was 9.8%, a little behind the fund’s benchmark, MSCI World Financials Index, which returned 11%. Financials lagged the wider market, the MSCI World Index rose by 14.8%. To compound the problem, the discount widened, from a small premium to a 7.4% discount, resulting in a negative return to shareholders of -2.2%. The dividend for the year was 3.1p, in line with its objective. The report says that an underweight in US financials relative to the Index was unhelpful as the US dollar strengthened and US financials rose.
The manager’s report says the three best performing holdings were emerging market banks, Bank Rakyat Indonesia and Security Bank, a Philippine bank, and an emerging market focused fund manager listed in the UK. Polar Capital Global Financial’s three largest holdings, PNC, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo all performed well. Other large holdings that did well included ACE, the property & casualty insurer, Blackstone, the alternative asset manager, Discover Financial Services, which is one of the largest credit-card issuers in the US and Marsh & McLennan, which owns a number of leading insurance and consulting businesses including Guy Carpenter, Mercer and Oliver Wyman.