REG - Pollen Street Group - Q4 2023 Trading Update

Pollen StreetAnnouncement

28/02/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 6727E  Pollen Street Group Ltd  28 February 2024

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

28 February 2024

Pollen Street Group Limited Q4 Trading Update

Pollen Street Group Limited ("Pollen Street" or the "Group") today issues its
trading update for the quarter ended 31 December 2023.

Highlights

·     Fundraising is progressing well across Private Equity and Private
Credit.

o Fundraising for the Private Equity strategy has been strong having secured
commitments in excess of £1.3 billion since 30 June 2023 across the
Continuation Vehicle and Fund V

o We are approaching first close for Private Credit fund IV ahead of plan and
have recently closed a £225 million separately managed account ("SMA") under
the Credit Strategy to support strong momentum in AuM throughout 2024

·     Deployment is also strong with Fee-Paying AuM closing the period
at £3.4 billion, up 36 per cent from £2.5 billion as at 31 December 2022

·     The Investment Company returns remain robust with stable credit
performance and rising yields

Asset Manager

The Private Equity and Private Credit strategies are performing well. Private
Equity fundraising is progressing well with commitments of approximately half
the target secured, and we remain confident in reaching the full €1 billion.
In Private Credit, we have recently closed a £225 million SMA and expect to
hold the first close of Private Credit fund IV in the first half of 2024,
giving clear line of sight to Credit AuM growth across 2024. The AuM on an
investor commitment basis as at 31 December 2023 was £4.2 billion, up 24 per
cent from £3.4 billion as at 31 December 2022. We expect this momentum to
continue. We are also seeing attractive deployment opportunities across both
strategies, bringing Fee-Paying AuM to £3.4 billion as at 31 December 2023,
which results in Average Fee-Paying AuM of £2.9 billion for the year.

Investment Company

The Return on Net Investment Assets was consistent for Q4 resulting in 8.8 per
cent return for 2023.  The return was driven by a strong risk-adjusted yield
of 11.3 per cent in 2023, up from 9.4 per cent in 2022, an increase of 2 per
cent, reflecting the re-pricing of facilities into the higher interest rate
environment.

We have committed over £120 million of the Investment Company's balance sheet
into Pollen Street managed funds to support the fundraising efforts of the
Asset Manager. We have also created capacity for a commitment into the first
close of Private Credit fund IV. This has resulted in Net Debt to Tangible
Equity reducing to 54 per cent as at 31 December 2023 compared to 69 per cent
as at 31 December 2022.

Performance remains strong, benefitting from the senior secured strategy, even
amidst a changing macroeconomic environment. The portfolio remains well
positioned with a good pipeline of opportunities.

About Pollen Street Group Limited

Pollen Street is an alternative asset manager dedicated to investing with the
financial and business services sectors across both Private Equity and Private
Credit strategies. The business was founded in 2013 and has consistently
delivered top tier returns alongside growing AuM.

Pollen Street benefits from a complementary set of asset management activities
focused on managing third-party AuM (the "Asset Manager") and on-balance sheet
investments (the "Investment Company").

The Asset Manager raises capital from top tier investors and deploys it into
its Private Equity and Private Credit strategies. The strong recurring
revenues from this business enable delivery of scalable growth.

The Investment Company invests in the strategies of the Group delivering
attractive risk adjusted returns. Today the portfolio is a well-diversified
pool of primarily senior asset-backed credit assets generating strong returns
at conservative loan to value ratios ("LTVs"). The portfolio consists of both
direct investments and investments in funds managed by Pollen Street.

POLN is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: POLN). Further
details are available at www.pollenstreetgroup.com
(http://www.pollenstreetgroup.com) .

For further information about this announcement please contact:

 

Barclays Bank plc - Joint Broker

Neal West / Stuart Muress

+44 (0)20 7623 2323

 

Investec Bank plc - Joint Broker

Bruce Garrow / Ben Griffiths

+44 (0)20 7597 4000

 

FGS Global

Chris Sibbald

Chris.Sibbald@fgsglobal.com (mailto:Chris.Sibbald@fgsglobal.com)

 

Link Company Matters Limited - Corporate Secretary

polncosec@linkgroup.co.uk (mailto:polncosec@linkgroup.co.uk)

 

ENDS

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