Pollen Street Group (LON:POLN) said its assets under management reached £8.5 billion at the end of June, split almost evenly between private equity and credit strategies, as fundraising for its fourth private credit fund supported a rise in fee-paying assets.
Lindsey McMurray said fee-paying AUM increased 18% to £5.5 billion during the first half of 2026. The group raised £1.8 billion of credit capital that had not yet been deployed at period-end, providing visibility for additional fee-paying AUM growth as capital is invested.
Fund-management earnings rise
Crispin Goldsmith, Pollen Street’s CFO, said the business’s key growth drivers remained fundraising and deployment. Management fee income totaled £33.9 million in the first half, while fund-management revenue increased 22% on a like-for-like basis.
Performance fees rose 90% year over year, driven by a strong contribution from private equity, Goldsmith said. The company expects performance-fee generation to be weighted toward the second half, consistent with prior years.
Fund-management costs increased 2% during the period, resulting in fund-management EBITDA of £16.1 million, up 73% on a like-for-like basis. Goldsmith said the group had maintained the margin improvement achieved in 2024 and had doubled fund-management EBITDA from two years earlier.
Goldsmith noted that reported first-half figures in 2025 included £8.4 million of non-recurring catch-up fees related to Private Equity Fund V. He said the company evaluates its asset-management operations on a like-for-like basis rather than using headline comparisons.
The CFO said the group remained on track to meet full-year consensus expectations for the asset-manager business, supported by undeployed credit capital and a growing deployment pipeline for the second half.
Investment-company return affected by Shawbrook
The investment company generated a 3.4% balance-sheet return in the first half, below Pollen Street’s target. McMurray said the result reflected two specific factors: a 0.2% one-time equalization effect connected to the larger size of Credit IV, and a 3.8% impact from a decline in Shawbrook’s share price.
Pollen Street invested in Shawbrook at the end of 2024. Following its IPO, the holding must be recognized on a mark-to-market basis. Goldsmith said the direct-investment portfolio otherwise delivered returns in line with expectations, while the group would exclude Shawbrook from future outlook and guidance commentary because of its inherent volatility.
Excluding the mark-to-market investment and equalization effects, the underlying net investment return was 7.4% in the first half. Goldsmith said that performance was on track to support full-year returns in line with expectations, given the anticipated weighting of equity returns toward the second half.
The group continued shifting its investment portfolio toward fund investments from direct investments. GP commitments represented 33% of investment assets at the end of June, up from 29% at the end of December, with £64 million of undrawn commitments. The company’s private equity fund investments were resilient, supported by portfolio-company operating performance, while private credit funds continued to generate consistent returns, Goldsmith said.
Credit deployment and private-equity plans
McMurray said Pollen Street’s private credit pipeline doubled during the first half and was “stronger and higher quality than ever before.” The group completed 20 upsizes with existing credit clients over the past year, which it said provides embedded growth in its credit portfolio as it scales deployment.
In response to an analyst question, McMurray said the company had seen deployment broadly double year over year and had a good start to the second quarter and into the third quarter. She said management was confident that deployment would proceed as expected.
McMurray said banks’ changing participation in the market has helped Pollen Street’s position as a consistent capital provider. She said the company had not seen degradation in underlying collateral pools and continued to test collateral against significant negative macroeconomic scenarios.
On pricing, McMurray said the group had maintained stable and attractive returns in senior credit, unlike some direct-lending markets that had experienced material compression. She did not expect a significant increase in senior-credit pricing, emphasizing risk management instead.
In private equity, Private Equity Fund V was 74% deployed. McMurray said the group was pursuing digital transformation, AI-led product development, structured go-to-market functions and embedded M&A capabilities across portfolio companies. She said Pollen Street generally seeks investments at valuations of roughly nine to 11 times EBITDA and targets a 3x money multiple for investors’ capital.
The target size for Private Equity Fund VI will be between €1.75 billion and €2 billion, McMurray said. She added that the company expected to complete several exits before year-end and did not see conditions becoming notably more difficult in the second half compared with the first half.
Capital returns and balance sheet
Pollen Street returned £25 million of cash to shareholders in the first half, including £7 million of share buybacks. The company also announced an interim dividend representing a further £17 million cash return.
Goldsmith said buybacks remain a key element of capital allocation, although the group intends to preserve its balance sheet as a strategic resource for AUM growth. At the end of June, net debt was 38% of gross investment assets, and £48 million remained undrawn under its facility.
McMurray said institutional allocations to private credit, and particularly asset-backed credit, still have room to grow toward target levels despite changes in bond markets. While some investors assess public and private markets on a relative-value basis, she said Pollen Street sees continued structural runway for private credit fundraising.
About Pollen Street Group (LON:POLN)
Pollen Street was founded in 2013. It is a listed alternative asset manager dedicated to the financial and business services sectors. Pollen Street has complementary activities in managing third-party assets (as an asset manager) and on-balance sheet investments (as an investment company), delivering growth through dedicated private equity and credit strategies.
