A Jupiter spokesperson said that the decision – effective immediately – was based purely on Mitchell’s specialism in global equities.
“[Mitchell] is a global equities man,” they said. “Somerville has some global equities experience from a former role, but it is simply a case of Mitchell’s skills lending themselves to a fund such as this one.
Somerville will retain control of the Japan Income Fund and co-management of Jupiter Japan Select.
The firm also revealed that Mitchell will be implementing some changes to the running of the fund.
“He will be making some changes [to the management of the fund],” they said. “It will no longer be run with a manager of managers approach, but as a portfolio of stocks. It will still draw on the skills of Jupiter’s regional teams.”
Mitchell uses an unconstrained bottom-up stock-picking approach to invest primarily on a long-term outlook while taking into account macroeconomic and market trends.
He joined Jupiter’s global equity team on 2 February in a newly-created head of strategy berth as part of the firm’s initiative to develop its international equity offering.
