The nine new funds are a mix of already established names that the group had previously not invested in and a few newer players to the game.
“Several of the new managers we have introduced into our portfolios are additions to our list of favoured managers,” said John Chatfeild Roberts, Jupiter CIO, “a number of these new names however have been beneficiaries of the asset allocation change that has taken place across the Merlin portfolios towards developed markets at the expense of Asia and the Emerging Markets.”
While Chatfeild-Roberts said the group remains confident in the managers it uses in Asia and the Emerging Markets, he said the group felt it “prudent to temper our weighting to these areas given the macro headwinds that economies and companies within these regions may face over the next few years.”
During a round table discussion of the Merlin team’s expectations for 2015, Chatfeild-Roberts added:“The key to this business is investing in the right people; we like to buy people that have the wind at their back.”
But, he added, doing so is very hard to do because, while there are active fund managers that can beat the index, they are difficult to find.
Chatfeild-Roberts explained that the investments into the managers had been taking place throughout the year, with part of the idea being to begin looking for the next generation of fund managers, “managers that could be good for the next 20 years,” he said.
The nine new funds are:
- Aptus Global Financials – Johnny de la Hey
- CF Woodford Equity Income – Neil Woodford
- Evenlode Income – Hugh Yarrow
- GLG Strategic Bond – Jon Mawby
- Invesco Perpetual UK Strategic Income – Mark Barnett
- M&G North American Value – Dan White
- Odey Allegra Developed Markets – James Hanbury
- Royal London UK Equity Income – Martin Cholwill
- Waverton European Equity – Oliver Kelton.
“Most of the managers we like tend to have a value bias because we like people that look at the downside first. We like making money, but we value that approach,” Chatfeild-Roberts added.
The group has also added an investment into commercial property into the mix. The exposure is through the Mayfair Capital Commerical Property Trust, which was designed for Jupiter and is managed on an advisory basis by Mayfair.
Outlook
Looking to 2015, Chatfeild-Roberts said the group expects the dollar to continue its upward trajectory, a move that has historically been poor for many emerging markets, and within a UK context tends to favour larger cap names over mid-caps.
As a result of this, the Merlin team remains favourably inclined toward the developed markets, the group is overweight US, European and Japanese equities and, within the UK, larger cap stocks.
