Jupiter is building out its European equities fund range after losing one of its star managers Alexander Darwall.
The Jupiter European Smaller Companies fund, launching today, will be run by Mark Heslop (pictured). Heslop took over for Darwall when he joined from Columbia Threadneedle last October on the £4.8bn European fund and €2.0bn European Growth Sicav.
Darwall’s departure was responsible for the majority of Jupiter’s redemptions in the first half of the year and prompted clients to pull £1.1bn from the European Growth fund in Q3 alone. His exit also caused Jupiter to lose the European Opportunities trust mandate with the board following Darwall to his new investment business Devon Equity Management. The mandate had represented the vast majority of investment trust assets at Jupiter.
Jupiter hopes to draw on Mark Heslop’s top-quartile track record
The Jupiter European Smaller Companies fund will invest in a concentrated portfolio of 50 to 60 small cap names that are listed in or heavily exposed to Europe.
The fund will follow the same strategy as the two existing strategies by using a bottom-up approach to find high quality businesses that have been mispriced by the market. At the time of investment companies must have a smaller market cap than the 225th company in the FTSE World Europe ex-UK index.
Heslop will be assisted on the European Smaller Companies fund by Europan Growth co-head Mark Nichols, who joined Jupiter at the same time from Columbia Threadneedle, alongside assistant manager Sohil Chotai.
Jupiter CIO Stephen Pearson said: “Mark has demonstrated that he can deliver attractive returns over the long term in what is a specialist sector, with his previous fund sitting in the first quartile over one, three and five years.
“We are pleased to be able to offer our clients access to this important asset class through a manager with such a high-quality track record, while building on our capabilities in both European equities and smaller companies investing.”
