The duo takes over from current manager Rhys Petheram (pictured) who will move to a dedicated multi-asset role but remain co-manager of two existing multi-asset portfolios, the Jupiter Distribution fund range with Alastair Gunn, and the Jupiter Global Ecology Diversified fund (Sicav).
Petheram will also assume fund management responsibility in the institutional absolute return area and work alongside Talib Sheikh, who was recently poached from JP Morgan Asset Management.
Richards, who joined Jupiter in 2011 from university, has been a member of the fixed income team since January 2013.
In April 2016 he was appointed assistant fund manager to support fixed income head Ariel Bezalel on the Jupiter Strategic Bond and Jupiter Dynamic Bond (Sicav) funds.
Darling joined Jupiter in 2015 and is a credit analyst in the firm’s fixed income team. Prior to joining Jupiter, he worked at Barclays with a focus on natural resource investments and has also held roles at Société Generale and Morgan Stanley.
Both Richards and Darling will continue to report into Bezalel and retain their current roles as assistant fund manager and credit analyst for the unconstrained bond funds.
Katharine Dryer, head of investments, fixed income and multi-asset at Jupiter, said the firm is “pleased to be able to combine the experience” of the two hires.
She said: “I’d also like to wish Rhys well in his new role; he was keen to focus his abilities on this area of the market, and our ambitious plans to further build our multi-asset business provide an excellent opportunity for him to do so.”
The Jupiter Corporate Bond fund has underperformed against the IA Sterling Corporate Bond benchmark with returns of 8.8% and 18.2% versus 11.3% and 20.1% over a three-year and five-year period.
