Pollen Street profit declines but firm raises dividend, holds guidance

Pollen Street Group Ltd on Tuesday reaffirmed its full-year guidance after reporting "strong and consistent" first-half results, including double-digit assets under management growth.

However, Pollen Street shares were down 5.1% at 785.00 pence on Tuesday in London.

The London-based asset manager's pretax profit for the first half of 2026 was £20.3 million, down 31% from £29.6 million the year before.

This was mainly due to the non-recurrence of Private Equity catch-up fees and a lower net investment return of 3.4% against 8.4% the year before, from the Investment Company segment. Pollen Street said this return was "below target, diluted by share price weakness in Shawbrook Group PLC and equalisation effects from fundraising." However, it said all other portfolio segments performed in line with expectations.

Management fee income decreased 12% to £31.1 million from £35.2 million, and interest income on credit assets held at amortised cost fell 20% to £13.6 million from £17.0 million.

Pollen Street's assets under management totalled £8.5 billion at June 30, up 39% from £6.1 billion. Fee-paying AuM increased 18% to £5.5 billion from £4.7 billion.

Pollen Street declared an interim dividend of 28.5 pence per share, up 5.6% from 27.0p.

"The asset manager delivered a strong and consistent performance in the first half of 2026," commented Chief Executive Officer Lindsey McMurray. "We completed the final close of Private Credit Fund IV and are successfully scaling deployment accordingly. We have also been pleased by the continued deployment in Private Equity Fund V as we progress exits in earlier funds."

Looking ahead, Pollen Street reaffirmed its full-year guidance.

"As we look across the market, the demand for European mid-market strategies continues to grow, acting as a powerful tailwind and complementing our robust and consistent investment performance...we are confident of achieving our target AuM of £10 billion through our next vintage funds," McMurray said.

He added: "Building on the performance we have delivered in H1, I look ahead to the rest of 2026 with confidence in what we can deliver for investors and shareholders."

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