The loss of small-cap manager James Zimmerman later this year will come as poor timing for Jupiter after his fund gathered more than half of its £400m assets under management in the past 18 months, according to a fund selector.
Jupiter announced on Tuesday it has hired M&G’s Matt Cable to manage the £408m Jupiter UK Smaller Companies fund following the resignation of incumbent manager Zimmerman.
Cable will join in the summer to replace Zimmerman (pictured) who has decided to return to his native US with his young family.
Cable will assume responsibility of the fund in Q3 following a transition period during which previous portfolio manager Richard Curling will take over day-to-day running of the fund.
Cable has spent nearly 12 years at M&G and has been lead manager on the £62m M&G PP UK Smaller Companies fund since 2014 and in August 2018 became manager of the £400m Prudential Life UK Smaller Companies fund.
He started in strategic and commercial roles before becoming a dedicated analyst in the smaller companies team in 2011.
Tough act to follow
Whitechurch Securities head of research Jonathan Moyes said the departure of Zimmerman is poor timing for Jupiter as he was steadily building a strong track record in the UK smaller companies space, attracting about £225m of inflows in the last 18 months on a £400m fund.
“This is even more impressive given the poor environment for net flows in UK small cap space,” he added.
On Cable, Moyes said M&G obviously rates him highly, first by allowing the transition into an analyst role in 2011, and then promoting him to lead portfolio manager only three years later. Cable’s main challenge at Jupiter will be to hold onto assets, he added.
“Clearly Matt is an impressive individual,” he said.
However, he added: “With manager departures in more illiquid investment universes, fund net outflows may be an issue. Were we to own the Jupiter fund, the fear would be the £225m of recent inflows may look to exit. Managing these flows will be Matt’s first key challenge, I am sure Matt will be clocking up many miles visiting investors to convince investors to stay the course.”
Strong track record
The Jupiter UK Smaller Companies fund is top quartile over one, three and five years. Since Zimmerman took over the fund from Curling in June 2015 it has returned 83% versus the IA UK Smaller Companies sector’s 33.9%. It has also outperformed the Numis Smaller Companies Aim excluding Investment Companies benchmark’s 19.2%.
Jupiter chief investment officer Stephen Pearson said: “We are delighted to have secured someone of Matt’s calibre to take over the management of this portfolio following James’s departure. A disciplined, bottom-up stock picker, Matt is a natural fit for Jupiter, and his investment philosophy and process are compatible with the portfolio’s existing management style.”
He added: “It has been a great pleasure to work with James over the last five years. Having taken on the management of the Jupiter UK Smaller Companies fund at the age of 26 he has delivered remarkable investment performance over his tenure and we are sorry to see him go. We wish him and his family all the best for their new life in the States and I am sure he will make a huge success of whatever he decides to turn his hand to next.”
