North American Fund

A leading investment team

Colm joined Polar Capital in June 2014 working on the North American Equities team. Prior to joining Polar Capital, Colm spent over 3 years as a global equity analyst at Seven Pillars Capital Management. Before that, he worked as an Economist for the Bank of England where he was responsible for analysis of banks and banking systems.

Colm Friel, CFA

Fund Approach

Differentiated approach focusing on Value Creation AND Value

The Polar Capital North American Fund invests with a clear focus on long-term Value Creation AND Value. The Fund’s managers target businesses capable of achieving double-digit underlying business compounding over time. At the same time through a disciplined approach to valuation we seek to purchase every holding at a attractive price. A focus on durable Value Creation at the business level drives attractive compounding at the portfolio level. While a focus on paying the right price offers optionality for further returns and provides a long-term value margin of safety. The team takes a genuinely multi-cap approach seeking to find the very best investment opportunities across a large investment universe, harnessing the breadth and diversity of the US and Canadian markets. The result is a portfolio that is very different to headline indices, with diverse drivers and highly appealing value creation and valuation characteristics.

Multi-cap strategy taking advantage of America’s strengths

Focused portfolio but with diverse drivers

Performance indicators

Sharpe ratio

0.2

Sortino ratio

0.2

Alpha

2.2%

Information ratio (net of fees)

0.3

Colm Friel, CFA Fund Manager

Andrew Holliman Fund Manager

Richard started his career in 1999 at Mercury Asset Management, before working at Threadneedle for nine years managing institutional mandates on the North American equities team. He left to set up Polar Capital's North American team in 2011.

Richard Wilson, CFA

Andrew started his career in 1997 at Baillie Gifford, before spending seven years at Threadneedle where he managed the Threadneedle American Fund. He left to set up Polar Capital's North American team in 2011.

Andrew Holliman

Academic qualifications

TBC

Universe quartile2

BCom (1st Class Hons) in Business Studies, University of Edinburgh MSc in Investment Analysis, University of Stirling

Academic qualifications

28 years

Industry experience

Disciplined, clear and repeatable process

• Attractive long-term business Value Creation ‒ Tailwind of business compounding and capital return ‒ Fundamental margin of safety • Invest at attractive price relative to appraised value ‒ Tailwind of value ‒ Valuation margin of safety = Targeting more ways to win and a double margin of safety

CIO Team

Strong operations team for back-office and flow management

Live trading 24 hours

Investment trading and Business Regulatory Compliance

Bespoke collateral, webinars, digital marketing

Experienced sales team complemented by premium client services

Global Distribution and Client Service Team

Polar Capital focussed on supporting the investment teams and managing the business

Risk management interaction, performance analysis, and ESG oversight

COO Team

Centralised trading desk

Legal and Compliance

Marketing

The Polar Capital North American Team applies a disciplined and primarily bottom-up process centred around a qualitative assessment of a company’s long-term value creation potential. The team uses its proprietary value creation checklist both as a means to qualitatively filter its broad investment universe and as a spine for assessing a company’s long-term value creation potential and fundamental risk. The consistent application of the value creation checklist allows for analysis that is objective, replicable and comparable. The second important part of the in-depth analysis is a valuation process which assesses the true value of the business and compares it with the current market valuation. The valuation analysis places emphasise on the long-term normalised cash flow yield though is supported by other approaches to valuation. Investment candidates that offer attractive long-term business value creation (ie in excess of the team’s 10% per annum hurdle) and whose market value is sufficiently less than the team’s assessment of intrinsic value, are strong candidates for inclusion in the portfolio. While the approach is long-term in nature the repeatable process ensures there is strong competition for portfolio capital.

Process

Richard Wilson, CFA Fund Manager

What we look for in an investment

Meeka Crabb, CFA Research Associate

Meeka joined Polar Capital in October 2025 as a Research Associate in the Global Small Company Team. She joined from Permira where she spent five + years as an Investment Analyst focusing on the firm’s Growth Opportunities strategy, specializing in minority investments in high-growth technology companies. Prior to this she worked at DLA Piper and HealthEdge Investment Partners, a healthcare-focused private equity firm, having started her career at Holland & Knight.

Meeka Crab, CFA

Academic qualifications

TBC

MSc in Finance, University of Tampa BA in Economics, University of South Florida

Academic qualifications

5 years

Industry experience

Passed CFA Level 3

Professional qualifications

MA (1st Class Hons) in History of Art, University of Edinburgh

Academic qualifications

26 years

Industry experience

CFA Charterholder

Professional qualifications

BA (1st Class Hons) in Economics, Trinity College, Dublin MSc in Finance and Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science

Academic qualifications

18 years

Industry experience

CFA Charterholder

Professional qualifications

High

Low

High

Low

Valuation

Long-term value creation

Over-priced growth

In vogue value destroyers?

Value traps

Stocks that interest us

Value Creation and Value

Why North America?

Experienced team with strong long-term record

Analyst-Driven 10% Data Coverage 96%

Over 75 years cumulative experience Track record stretching over 25 years across a variety of investment cycles Skin in the game - managers are significant investors in the Fund Focused team with reference to world class specialist teams

Andrew Holliman, Fund Manager

Track record - Polar Capital North American Fund1

Past performance is not indicative or a guarantee of future results. 1. Source: Polar Capital, 31 March 2026. Basis: Net of fees and expenses, includes the reinvestment of dividends and capital gain distributions. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Fund performance is representative of the institutional share class in USD terms. 2. Benchmark: MSCI North America Net Total Return Index, The Polar Capital North American Fund was launched on 14 November 2011. 3. Reference to the MSCI North America Equally Weighted index is for illustrative purposes only. 4. Source: FE FundInfo, December 2025. Performance is denominated in GBP terms. Andrew Holliman from 31 August 2000 – 31 December 2025. Relative returns are the same for all currencies. Fund performance is shown gross of management fees. Fund data is quoted on a bid to bid basis with income re-invested at bid. Gross performance from 31 March 2010 is based on daily cash flows and valuations. Prior to this Global Close prices. Prior to January 2008 based on 12pm prices.

Source: Polar Capital, 31 March 2026. Basis: Net of fees and expenses, includes the reinvestment of dividends and capital gain distributions. Totals may not sum due to rounding. Fund performance is representative of the institutional share class in USD terms. Performance data takes account of fees paid by the fund but does not take account of any commissions or costs you may pay to third parties when subscribing for or redeeming shares or any taxes or securities account charges that you may pay on your investment in the fund. Such charges will reduce the performance of your investment. A 5% subscription fee can be charged at the Investment Managers discretion. 1. Benchmark: MSCI North America Net Total Return Index, The Polar Capital North American Fund was launched on 14 November 2011. 2. The difference between the Fund and Benchmark returns is calculated via annualising the geometric relative return, it is not calculated arithmetically. 3. Reference to the MSCI North America Equally Weighted index is for illustrative purposes only.

10.9%

15.0%

401.5%

18.1%

18.0%

492.0%

-6.1%

-2.5%

-15.3%

Fund

MSCI North America Net Total Return Index1

Difference2

1 year

3 years ann.

7.8%

11.2%

-3.0%

5 years ann.

Cum Since Inception

Colm Friel, Fund Manager

The American market offers far more than the mega-cap names that often dominate the headlines. Our net is cast far wider, taking advantage of opportunities across the market-cap spectrum where appealing long-term fundamentals and value aligns

11.9%

13.2%

-1.2%

Ann Since Inception

MSCI North America Equally Weighted Index3

13.3%

12.7%

7.4%

330.3%

10.7%

• Deep and broad market provides an abundance of choice • Culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and shareholder alignment • Large domestic market provides long runway of growth for SMID caps • Serial global winners across industries

The Polar Capital North American Team applies a disciplined, bottom-up process built around a rigorous value creation checklist and an ongoing competition for capital within the portfolio. Every holding must demonstrate the ability to deliver double digit compounding of business value. The repeatable process, focused on long-term value creation and fundamentals, enables the portfolio to compound at an attractive rate over time, while valuation discipline aims to provide a long-term margin of safety.

Process

Richard Wilson, Fund Manager

America is a terrific place to be an investor. It is a vast market with a huge selection of well-managed businesses to choose from. There is a substantial domestic market for smaller businesses to be able to continue to grow for a long period of time and it is home to businesses that serially expand their presence on a global basis.

Track record - Andrew Holliman4

Process

Andrew Holliman, Fund Manager

We invest our clients’ savings as owners of American businesses, patiently backing companies that can compound sustainably and buying them at sensible prices. This results in more ways to win through fundamental compounding plus valuation re-rating potential while also providing a double margin of safety.