PCP is an SEC-registered investment adviser with its principal place of business in London,
United Kingdom. PCP was founded in 2001 by:
• Douglas Polunin: Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer
• Julian Garel-Jones: Director and Chief Financial Officer
• Paul Parsons: Director, Risk and Compliance; Chief Compliance Officer
• Aditya Mehta: Director and Chief Operations Officer
The firm commenced business in 2001.
PCP is a U.K. Limited Company registered in England and Wales that is authorized and
regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom. PCP is also registered
as an investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the United
States.
Our firm is wholly-owned by Polunin Capital Partners Pte. Ltd., which operates under a
Capital Markets Services License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Mr. Douglas
Polunin, the firm’s CEO owns more than 25% but less than 50% of the Singapore parent
company.
PCP provides discretionary investment management services predominantly to offshore
investment companies. Investors in these funds should refer to the appropriate fund
prospectus for important additional information and considerations prior to subscribing to
invest.
PCP is the appointed investment manager of two pooled investment funds in the U.S.; the
investment manager to investment companies domiciled in Luxembourg and the Cayman
Islands; the adviser to a U.S. ERISA collective investment fund (collectively, the “Funds”)
and sub-adviser or adviser to US segregated mandates. The following Funds are accessible
to U.S. persons:
1. Polunin Capital Partners Emerging Markets Active Fund. This is a Cayman
Islands-domiciled hedge fund with a minimum subscription size of $250,000. The
fund aims to provide investors with absolute returns through a combination of long
and short investment positions, predominantly in the securities and derivatives of
Emerging Market issuers. This fund is permitted to use leverage, subject to
limitations set forth in its prospectus.
2. Polunin Developing Countries Fund, LLC. This fund was launched in 2011 to
provide a domestic pooled investment vehicle domiciled in the U.S. This fund mirrors
PCP’s core long-only emerging markets all cap investment strategy. The fund has a
minimum subscription size of $1,000,000. The all cap Developing Countries strategy
is currently closed to new investments and PCP is operating a “commitment list” of
investors. As capacity becomes available through investor withdrawals or market
conditions Polunin may at its discretion allocate additional capacity. This will
generally be offered on a first come, first served basis.
3. Polunin Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund, LLC. This fund was launched in 2014
to provide a domestic pooled investment vehicle domiciled in the U.S. This fund
mirrors PCP’s core long-only emerging markets small cap investment strategy. The
fund has a minimum subscription size of $1,000,000. The Emerging Markets Small
Cap strategy is currently closed to new investments and PCP is operating a
“commitment list” of investors. As capacity becomes available through investor
withdrawals or market conditions Polunin may at its discretion allocate additional
capacity. This will generally be offered on a first come, first served basis.
4. Polunin Capital Partners Collective Investment Trust (the “PCP CIT”). This
stand-alone collective investment fund was launched in 2019 to take forward the
assets of the white label product that had historically hosted PCP’s ERISA offering.
Investors transferred from the white label product into PCP CIT on 29 March 2019.
The PCP CIT is managed by PCP in the same style and using the same PCP team
as the legacy vehicle, and while it has a different CUSIP number it has retained the
relevant performance track record. PCP CIT is available to plan sponsors of both
defined benefit and defined contribution tax-qualified employee retirement plans.
Global Trust Company (“GTC”), is the appointed Trustee of PCP CIT. GTC has
retained PCP to provide investment advisory services to this stand-alone CIT. The all
cap Developing Countries strategy, of which the PCP CIT forms a part, is currently
closed to new investment and operating a “commitment list” of investors. As capacity
becomes available through investor withdrawals or market conditions Polunin may at
its discretion allocate additional capacity. This will generally be offered on a first
come, first served basis.
We also manage or sub-advise separate accounts for institutional clients, including U.S.
clients. We provide investment advice to our clients in accordance with specific investment
guidelines and restrictions, some of which include restrictions on investing in certain
securities or types of securities or other financial instruments. These guidelines and
restrictions are mandated by the client with or without consultation with PCP.
In contrast, an investment in our Funds does not, in and of itself, create an advisory
relationship between Fund investors and PCP. We manage the Funds in accordance with
investment guidelines and restrictions specified in each Fund’s offering documents. Typically
we have investment management agreements with our Funds. The shares of particular Fund
investors or shareholders cannot be managed according to different investment guidelines or
restrictions specified by individual Fund investors. The all cap Developing Countries strategy
is currently the only strategy which is offered in a managed account. As this strategy is
closed to new investments, PCP is not currently accepting additional managed accounts.
We have an automated pre-trade compliance process overseen by the firm’s Chief
Compliance Officer to help ensure that we manage portfolios in accordance with their
specified guidelines and restrictions.
PCP specializes in investing in listed Global Emerging Markets’ equities. Our investment
philosophy is based on the two distinctive perspectives we hold when seeking opportunities
in emerging markets:
• that Replacement Cost in a common currency (USD) is the best valuation metric for
companies in emerging markets at any given point in time; and
• that defining the Industrial Sector as the common ground for companies in emerging
markets gives the best vantage point.
Only companies with the most discounted values relative to replacement costs in each
sector, with strong or improving balance sheets, and with the most favorable
sector outlooks
are considered for investment.
PCP’s methodology is based on Replacement Cost and, with the use of a proprietary
database, we calculate the replacement value of emerging markets companies in a common
currency unit, the U.S. dollar.
We view emerging markets not by country, but by Replacement Cost in each sector. This
allows us to differentiate between companies trading above or below the median
replacement value in each sector. It also gives PCP an objective top-down view of the
emerging world based on bottom-up valuations – a unique perspective.
We rank emerging market companies within their respective industrial sectors, based on
their RVBRIC (pronounced “Rubric”) values. The RVBRIC value is a proprietary valuation
metric developed by Douglas Polunin and his team. It is an acronym that stands for
Replacement Value, Balance sheet Risk, and Industry Conditions. The RVBRIC value is
calculated as the quotient of Enterprise Value divided by Industrial Capacity, or replacement
value. Enterprise Value is the sum of market capitalization and net working capital, all in U.S.
dollars, while Industrial Capacity is expressed in the relevant unit of capacity for each
company.
PCP has created a proprietary database that calculates RVBRIC values and ranks
companies accordingly by industrial sector. The database houses financial data on over
21,000 publicly listed emerging market companies, including key balance sheet, income
statement and corporate data going back at least five years. Pricing and exchange rates are
updated. Balance sheet items are also populated on a quarterly or half yearly basis,
depending on individual countries' reporting requirements.
PCP has also developed a proprietary data importer application, which permits the manual
inputting of data on companies, including industrial capacity data, using information obtained
directly from the companies in question. Complete RVBRIC calculations are currently
available for approximately 10,000+ names. Once the ranking has been calculated by the
proprietary database for a given industrial sector, the Median Company in the list is defined
as fair value. It is the average at which the emerging market companies in that sector trade.
PCP defines all companies trading below the Median as potentially undervalued, and all
those above as overvalued.
Liquidity screens reduce the number of potential portfolio candidates to approximately 1,500
large cap companies and approximately 5,000 small cap
1 companies. Stocks that are too
illiquid are eliminated immediately. For our core Developing Countries strategy, PCP’s
liquidity policy is that at least 70% of the invested portfolio will at all times be in securities
that can be liquidated within 7 (seven) trading days, accounting for no more than one third of
the daily market volume. PCP’s smaller capitalization niche strategies, in particular our
Emerging Markets Small Cap strategy, have less onerous liquidity requirements, with a
liquidity policy that requires at least 75% of the invested portfolio to at all times be in
securities that can be liquidated within 15 (fifteen) trading days, accounting for no more than
one third of the daily market volume.
PCP then conducts extensive on-site visits and/or research telephone calls with the
management of companies that are identified as being potentially mispriced. The visits and
calls are designed to obtain new, or to verify existing capacity information. In addition, the
visits are designed to understand why the market is placing such a large valuation discount
or premium on the target company versus the remainder of the sector in emerging markets.
1 Small cap company is defined as a company that typically has a market capitalization of USD $2.5
billion or less.
If the company is extremely undervalued, the visits are intended to cast light on the
management or majority shareholders’ strategy for realizing the company’s true value. The
investment managers conduct extensive additional sector research, tracking variables such
as supply and demand, product pricing, mergers and acquisitions, capital expenditures and
pricing power on a global basis. If a company appears excessively over-valued, the visit will
concentrate on understanding which factors have caused the company to enjoy a premium
rating by the market, and which factors, if any, are vulnerable to disappointments.
Trading liquidity is a key consideration when investing in emerging markets. Our larger cap
strategy portfolios typically comprise around 150 stocks and our small cap strategy portfolios
typically comprise around 175 stocks, in both cases with stocks spread across at least 10
countries and over 10 industrial sectors. PCP’s portfolios have a high active share, typically
around 90% within our larger cap strategy portfolios and around 95% within our small cap
strategy.
Investors in the Funds should refer to the relevant Fund offering documents for additional
information. Clients for whom we manage separately managed accounts will find more
information in their investment management agreements and related account
documentation.
Assets: As of December 30, 2022, PCP had $4,155,893,543 in discretionary assets under
management. PCP does not manage any assets on a non-discretionary basis.
PCP contingency plans and remote working capabilities: PCP hosts all I.T.
infrastructure on a private cloud located at a data centre in Kent, United Kingdom which in
turn is backed up offsite on a regular basis. All employees work on virtualised desktops
which are accessible both at work and from offsite locations. The virtual desktop provides
access to all office resources (depending on roles-based permissions), and offsite access is
protected by two-factor authentication.
In addition, PCP uses a cloud-based phone system ensuring that not only can all DDIs be
easily switched to mobile, but also that there is no interruption of the compliance requirement
for all business calls to be recorded. The only requirement to enable work to be conducted
from any offsite location is a stable internet connection.
The last full Disaster Recovery test was conducted on December 29, 2022.
PCP retains the ability to implement both split-team working and shelter-in-place working
scenarios. The firm is able to split employees into two teams that complement one another
for investment, client service, compliance and back-office functionality.