Polen Focus Growth

A concentrated portfolio of exceptionally advantaged US businesses compounding value over the long-term.

The Polen Focus Growth Strategy, managed by the Large Company Growth team at Polen Capital, consists in a concentrated portfolio of exceptional U.S. businesses with strong growth and durable competitive advantages. With a disciplined, bottom-up approach honed over decades, the team invests only in companies that meet rigorous quality, growth, and financial strength criteria. Their philosophy is rooted in the belief that long-term compounding from a focused set of high-conviction ideas can deliver meaningful value for investors over the long-term. As a strategic partner, iM Global Partner supports the distribution of this strategy to institutional and professional investors globally.

Polen Capital

Manager

January 1989

Inception of Strategy

USD

Base Currency

Investment Philosophy

The Polen Focus Growth strategy seeks to achieve long-term growth by building a concentrated portfolio of outstanding businesses with competitive advantages and the potential for sustained superior growth.

Polen’s philosophy is grounded in the belief that high-quality companies, those with strong balance sheets, resilient earnings profiles, and forward-looking leadership, are best positioned to deliver sustainable, above-average earnings growth over time. This repeatable, high-conviction process is designed not only to compound wealth but to preserve capital and navigate market volatility with confidence and clarity.

The Large Company Growth team applies selective financial “guardrails” to identify the most competitively advantaged business able to compound growth over the long term. Consequently, the Focus Growth portfolio has a strong bias toward larger capitalization businesses with organic growth at stable to increasing margins, little or no debt, high conversion of accounting earnings to cash flow and sustainably high returns on capital.

A Statement from Polen Capital

We invest with conviction in quality — seeking enduring growth through businesses built to thrive, not just survive.

Dan Davidowitz

CFA Portfolio Manager

Why should a client choose Polen Capital?

Founded in 1979, Polen Capital is a global investment manager that provides actively managed growth equity and high-yield credit strategies. Polen delivers distinctive growth and income solutions, building high-conviction, concentrated, competitively advantaged portfolios with the potential to compound and outperform over the long-term. The firm has a distinctive culture and is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional professionals who are aligned with the firm’s mission of preserving and growing clients’ assets to protect their present and enable their future.

Why active management?

Stephen Atkins CFA, Portfolio Manager, Strategist & Analyst at Polen Capital, explains why his firm believes in active management based on historical evidence over the past 20-30 years.

Polen Capital’s Investment Philosophy for China Equities

Jean Maunoury, Deputy CEO and CIO of Research and Investment at iM Global Partner, speaks with June Lui, Portfolio Manager & Analyst for Emerging Markets Growth at Polen Capital, about investment strategies in Chinese equities. June explains Polen Capital’s long-term, fundamentals-driven approach to investing in China, focusing on structural growth opportunities and high-quality companies rather than short-term market trends. She highlights the importance of being selective, emphasizing management quality, business models, and valuations. The discussion also covers the limitations of traditional Chinese equity benchmarks, often dominated by state-owned enterprises, and why Polen Capital avoids them in favor of independent research.

How Polen Capital’s Emerging Market teams collaborate effectively

In this conversation, Jean Maunoury, Deputy CEO and CIO of Research and Investment at iM Global Partner, speaks with June Lui, Portfolio Manager & Analyst for Emerging Markets Growth at Polen Capital, to explore how Polen Capital’s Emerging Market teams collaborate effectively.

Polen Global Growth Fund Overview

In this video, Damon Ficklin, Head of Team and Portfolio Manager at Polen Capital and Lead Portfolio Manager for the Global Growth Strategy, outlines the firm’s disciplined investment philosophy centered on three key advantages: portfolio concentration, long-term holding periods, and rigorous risk management. He explains how Polen Capital focuses on selecting 20 to 30 of the world’s highest-quality growth companies, leveraging a long-term investment horizon to let fundamentals drive returns rather than market timing. The investment process uses five guardrails, high return on equity, strong earnings and free cash flow growth, solid balance sheets, improving margins, and organic revenue growth, to filter a broad universe down to about 100–150 best-in-class businesses, while excluding cyclical and competitively weak firms. ESG factors are fully integrated into their analysis, ensuring companies manage risks and capture opportunities. This methodical approach has delivered consistent performance over decades and remains central to Polen Capital’s mission of protecting and growing client capital.