Polar Capital's Yakas favours 'transparent' EM banks

Polar Capital's financials manager John Yakas is shunning the troubled Southern European banking sector in favour of ‘more transparent' emerging European banks.

Yakas, manager of firm’s European Financials fund, is underweight Southern European banks in light of continued uncertainty over whether Greece will default and recent news Portugal has agreed a bailout from the European Union and the IMF. The fund manager has limited exposure to Spanish, Cypriot, and Italian banks and no exposure to Portuguese or Greek banks. “The underlying picture for Portuguese banks is not that profitable relative to Spanish and Greek banks,” he said. Meanwhile, he has added 3%-4% to European emerging market banks over the past quarter, on the basis these econ...