Richard Buxton’s appointment as manager of the Jupiter UK Growth trust has been delayed by a month as the coronavirus has forced Jupiter to postpone its meeting where shareholders were set to approve its acquisition of Merian Global Investors.
The Jupiter UK Growth trust’s board announced on 18 February it had reached an agreement with Jupiter for Buxton (pictured) to assume lead fund management responsibility for the portfolio, replacing Steve Davies after a run of poor performance.
> See also: Jupiter to replace Steve Davies with Newton manager
The announcement came a day after Jupiter announced it had agreed a deal to acquire Merian Global Investors, subject to approval.
Buxton now set to take on trust at the end of May
At the time, the board said Buxton would assume fund management responsibility at a general shareholder meeting due to take place at the end of April, but this meeting has been pushed back and will be incorporated into the company’s AGM on 21 May as coronavirus continues to affect markets.
A statement issued by the board said: “In light of the coronavirus pandemic and measures taken to contain the outbreak, Jupiter announced on 15 April 2020 that it now expects to seek shareholder approval for the Merian acquisition at Jupiter’s annual general meeting of shareholders on 21 May 2020.
“As a result of this delay, Mr Buxton is now expected to take over lead fund management responsibility for the company at the end of May.”
More than 95% of trust’s portfolio is aligned with Merian UK Alpha
The statement added until then the investment portfolio will be managed by a transition management team at Jupiter made up of senior members of its investment team led by chief investment officer Stephen Pearson.
The team has already transitioned more than 95% of the trust’s portfolio to align with Buxton’s open-ended Merian UK Alpha fund strategy and it will continue to manage the trust’s portfolio in line with that strategy until Buxton assumes lead fund management responsibility.
Board hails Buxton’s ‘strong long-term performance’
The statement said: “Merian’s UK Alpha strategy utilises a high-conviction approach typically holding 30-40 stocks, combining fundamental research with a patient, long‑term time horizon and has generated a strong long-term performance record consistent with the company’s investment objective and policy.”
> See also: Merian managers must turnaround mass outflows for £20m windfall
But according to FE Trustnet, UK Alpha has underperformed its sector and benchmark over one, three and five years. It has returned -22.8%, -13.2% and -7.5% over one, three and five years respectively, compared with the IA UK All Companies sector’s -18.5%, -11.3% and 0.7%.
The FTSE All Share index has returned -18.9%, -10.7% and 2.04% over one, three and five years, respectively.
