According to the asset manager, Somerville, who has overseen the £577m fund since its launch in 2005, will be joining an undisclosed institutional asset manager and will no longer be operating within the UK retail space.
He is succeeded by the fund’s current deputy manager, Dan Carter, who has been at Jupiter since 2008 and worked alongside Somerville for eight years. Carter will simultaneously continue in his role as lead manager of Jupiter’s Japan Select Sicav fund.
The asset manager insisted that despite the personnel shake up, there would be no change to the investment philosophy of the fund.
“There is a significant overlap between the two portfolios in terms of the companies they are invested in,” Jupiter stated. “Like Simon, Dan seeks to own long-term positions in cash-generative, income-paying Japanese companies that are run for shareholders, have a genuine competitive advantage and offer real, identifiable growth opportunities that he believes are underappreciated by the market.”
Jupiter’s CIO, Stephen Pearson, also reassured clients that they could expect continuity in the management of both Japan-focused funds because “Dan’s approach is perfectly complementary to Simon’s.”
Though Pearson was “sorry to see Simon leave after a long career with Jupiter,” he said he was “delighted to appoint Dan as Simon’s successor on the Jupiter Japan Income Fund, and to have been able to draw from our pool of talented young fund managers to fill this role.”
