HSBC Global Asset Management’s Nick Pothier has added the Polar Capital Technology and Healthcare funds to his Open Global Return vehicle as part of a long-term bet on the sectors.
Pothier has added a 2.5% allocation to each of the Polar Capital funds in his £129.49m multi-manager fund after identifying both technology and demographic change as key long-term themes.
The two funds sit in the “Global Thematic Equity” pocket of the fund alongside the Impax Environmental Markets fund and Imara African Opportunities, which have been held in the fund since inception in November 2006.
Pothier, who last week announced his intention to return to his native South Africa to pursue an interest in sustainable farming, says the theme of demographic change covers a rising global population, which in the developed world is growing older. “The world’s population is at about six billion and by 2050 it will be closer to nine billion,” Pothier says.
“There is obviously an investment angle there."
“In developed markets, we will have an older population, while in emerging markets it will generally be younger. The question is: how do you play that? You have to find an investment angle and one of the higher-conviction angles is healthcare.
“Meanwhile, technology is probably the oldest investment theme of all – people always want to do things cheaper and easier.”
Pothier has also added the Luxembourg-domiciled HSBC MultiAlpha Sterling Bond and MultiAlpha Global Equity funds, both run by HSBC Multimanager.
The addition to the two HSBC Multimanager funds follows the introduction of the HSBC MultiAlpha Global Aggregate Bond fund last year and is viewed by Pothier as more efficient and cost-effective.
Through the Sterling Bond fund, he has awarded mandates to Fidelity, Royal London and Goldman Sachs, who were all previously held in the fund directly, while in the Global Equity fund, he has awarded mandates to long-held managers Taube Hodson Stonex Partners, who manage the GAM Star Worldwide Equity fund and Spencer House Capital Management.
Pothier has also awarded a mandate to new entrant Longview Asset Management.
“We have incorporated a couple of these into the portfolio and it is more cost-effective than buying funds directly,” Pothier says.
“You also control the underlying managers, and when you want to change one of those managers you do not have to sell them because they are your assets – you control them and have awarded the mandate to run them.
“All you do is take away that mandate and award it to someone else,” he says.
