JP Morgan Asset Management European equities manager Stephen Macklow-Smith is to retire and leave the business after 23 years.
The board of the JP Morgan European Investment Trust said it had been informed by the fund group that Macklow-Smith (pictured) had decided to retire from the asset management industry, in an RNS filing on Monday.
Macklow-Smith, who has run the trust since joining JP Morgan AM in 1997, will officially leave the business on 31 December 2020.
The board said existing managers Alexander Fitzalan-Howard, Michael Barakos and Tom Buckingham would continue to manage the trust and said three other investment professionals – Zenah Shuhaiber, Timothy Lewis and Matt Jones – had been brought on board to assist.
The trust is split into two mandates – a £266.5m growth portfolio and £164.3m income portfolio. Both vehicles are languishing near the bottom of the IT Europe sector, losing investors 8.3% and 21.5% respectively over three years versus peers’ average gain of 11.4%, according to data from Trustnet.
Barakos and Buckingham will continue on as co-managers of the income portfolio, alongside new recruit Jones. Meanwhile Fitzalan-Howard will remain a co-manager on the growth portfolio and will be joined by Shuhaiber and Lewis.
The management changes come into effect at the end of October and there will be no change to the trust’s investment objectives, the board said.
JPMAM confirms management changes on £1.2bn of Europe funds
A JPMAM spokesperson confirmed Macklow-Smith’s trio of funds would be handed over to other members of the international equity group from 1 November until the end of 2020.
Fitzalan Howard, Joanna Crompton and Richard Webb will take the reins of the £121.2m Europe fund, with the former two also in charge of the £457m Europe Equity Sicav alongside Phillipa Clough.
Clough, Webb and Shuhaiber will look after the €735.5m (£666.1m) Euroland Equity Sicav.
