Polar Capital Technology hails AI-driven gains; net asset value surges
(Alliance News) - Polar Capital Technology Trust PLC on Friday announced a notable jump in net asset value during its financial year, citing artificial intelligence-focused companies.
The trust aiming to maximise long-term capital growth via a diversified portfolio of technology companies said net asset value per share more than doubled to 657.41 pence at April 30 from 325.20p a year earlier.
Its benchmark, the Dow Jones Global Technology index, rose by nearly 58% in local currency during the same period, or 55% sterling-adjusted.
Total net assets of Polar Capital Technology surged 93% to GBP7.32 billion from GBP3.80 billion, while the share price rose to 603.00p from 288.50p and the discount to NAV narrowed to 8.3% from 11.3%.
The firm said its "large but underweight" position in Nvidia Corp detracted 58 basis points from relative performance as it "found opportunities elsewhere".
It added that it benefited from overweight positions in Advanced Micro Devices Inc, known as AMD, which like Nvidia is a chipmaker, as well as industry peers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd alias TSMC, and Intel Corp. AMD contributed 167 basis points, TSMC 65 bps, and Intel 45 bps.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Electron Ltd detracted 33 bps, a modest offset.
The trust recommended no dividend, unchanged from a year earlier, and said artificial intelligence-driven gains delivered its strongest relative performance in at least two decades.
Chair Catherine Cripps said: "While macroeconomic uncertainty remains and market volatility may continue, we remain confident in the long-term outlook for the sector. We believe these conditions can create attractive investment opportunities, and both the investment team and the portfolio are well positioned to benefit from continued developments in artificial intelligence."
She added: "At the same time, shareholders should be aware that any continued weakening of the US dollar could act as a near-term headwind to performance, given that a significant proportion of the company's assets are denominated in US dollars."
Polar Capital shares were 0.6% lower at 677.50 pence each on Friday morning in London.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor
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