WealthDFM | March 2021
POLAR CAPITAL
The Polar Express Gavin Rochussen, CEO at Polar Capital, talks to Wealth DFM Magazine about the growth in this specialist, active fund management business, what it offers investors and the types of fund its investment teams run.
W
e begin our conversation by talking about how he became involved with the business and its key driver for success. Gavin Rochussen has been the CEO at Polar Capital since July 2017 when he took over from Tim Woolley, a co-founder of the business alongside Brian Ashford-Russell. The key driver for the group is the belief that if funds perform well, then they will attract investors which is why Polar Capital is all about performance not asset gathering. Rochussen explains that the business is structured to allow their 13 investment teams to focus on their portfolios while a best-in-class operational structure works on everything else.
THE COVID CRISIS Rochussen recalled the moment when he realised the global economy was heading towards a crisis as a
8
result of Covid-19. In February last year he spent two weeks on an expedition to Antarctica with his wife, a photographer. “We were completely oblivious. We got back to London the same weekend the news broke of an outbreak of COVID in Italy” he said, pointing out it was only after the outbreak in Italy when the stock markets responded. “That was the last time I was on an airplane actually. It’s been quite an adjustment, but for the better I have to say.” 21st March 2020 was when the UK went into the first lockdown. This coincided with the lowest point in global markets, with many losing around 30% of their value in what was proving to be the fastest bull to bear rotation on record. Polar Capital funds consist almost exclusively of equities, and overall performance is entirely correlated to the movement in equities. Rochussen sums it up, “It was a scary time.” By last March, the equity markets had experienced the longest bull run in modern history, when in Rochussen’s view “a lot of people got complacent.”
WealthDFM.com
