Two funds on which Clarke had been lead manager – the JPM Global Infrastructure Trends fund and the JPM Global Equity Absolute Alpha fund – had both been closed as part of a wider consolidation of JPM’s fund range. Peter Kirkman has been appointed lead portfolio manager on the remainder of Clarke’s funds, the £164.9m JPM Global Equity and JPM Global Unconstrained Equity funds. Howard Williams will support him on the Unconstrained fund.
Clarke was co-manager on a number of Luxembourg-domiciled products including the JPM Global Developing Trends and the JPM Global Total Return. Peter Kirkman will assume sole responsibility for these two funds. Kirkman also runs the group’s Global Consumer Trends fund.
In a statement, JPM said that Clarke had left the group for personal reasons. The group reiterated that the investment philosophy, process and management on all the funds would remain consistent.
The JPM Global Equity fund was third quartile over three years in the IMA Global Sector, having delivered 23.8% against a sector average of 25.4%. The JPM Global Unconstrained Equity fund is up 20.6% against a return of 24.4% from the offshore equity international sector.
Clarke joined JPM in May 2010, having been of European equities at Schroders and had also worked as a European equity manager at Gartmore.