Polen Capital announced the expansion of its Emerging Markets franchise, hiring LGM’s core Emerging Markets and China Equity investment teams. The agreement sees an additional six investment professionals joining Polen Capital, bringing the expanded franchise to now include six strategies and 10 investment professionals, based in London and Polen’s newly launched Hong Kong office.
The LGM teams, which were previously part of Columbia Threadneedle Investments, will enhance Polen’s capabilities and expertise in emerging markets and China as clients increasingly seek exposure to these markets. Polen will onboard and rebrand the team’s core emerging markets strategies and products including Emerging Markets Growth, China Growth and Emerging Markets Small Company Growth.
“Our expansion into Asia, and emerging markets overall, represents an attractive opportunity for Polen and our clients that will increase our exposure, people and capabilities in the fastest growing parts of the world,” said Stan Moss, CEO of Polen Capital. “The LGM team is aligned with Polen strategically and culturally, and mirrors our client-centric focus on long-term outcomes. Having a consistent, sustainable operating model and robust, centralized infrastructure will support the team’s ability to do what they do best.”
This expansion reunifies a historically effective team as several members of Polen’s Emerging Markets Growth team joined Polen from LGM. It also marks a meaningful expansion of its global research capabilities, now with on-the-ground professionals in Hong Kong, enhancing Polen’s ability to identify companies that can deliver sustainable, above-average earnings growth.
“We are excited our former LGM colleagues are joining us here at Polen. The team brings deep experience and a long track record building concentrated, quality growth portfolios in emerging markets, which aligns well with Polen’s focused investment philosophy,” said Damian Bird, Head of the Polen Emerging Markets Growth team. “Broadly speaking, most investors are vastly underexposed to emerging markets. We think their long-term economic growth potential will fuel attractive investment opportunities for the foreseeable future, and we are pleased to offer clients best-in-class emerging markets capabilities.”
For Funds Society, Madrid
