Jupiter European Special Situations – change of manager

Kate Marshall | Thu 11 June 2020

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Cédric de Fonclare stepped down as manager of the Jupiter European Special Situations Fund on 1 June 2020. He's since left Jupiter Asset Management and the fund management industry in order to move abroad with his family.

Mark Nichols and Mark Heslop have taken over the fund's management. They joined Jupiter's European equities team last year and currently run other funds including the Jupiter European Fund. They'll run the European Special Situations Fund using a similar process.

How will the fund be managed?

Nichols and Heslop will invest in a fairly small number of companies, around 35-45. This means each one can have a significant impact on performance, though it increases risk. Most recently under de Fonclare, the fund had 42 investments. So there's the potential for the number of companies to reduce in order for the managers to focus on their highest-conviction ideas.

The new managers look for quality companies with superior growth potential. They like companies with a sustainable advantage, which makes it difficult for competitors to do better than them over the long term. A company might achieve this by having access to unique information, having a strong brand that customers remain loyal to, or owning a large share of the market, for example.

The managers are happy to invest in companies for the long term in order to benefit fully from any potential earnings growth, rather than trying to make short-term guesses and gains. This keeps buying and selling to a minimum, and trading costs low.

Nichols and Heslop are both experienced fund managers in European equities and we think they have the potential to perform well in future. They're still relatively new to the team at Jupiter though and, given this is such a competitive sector, we'd like to see how things progress for now.

This fund does not currently feature on the Wealth 50 list of funds chosen by our analysts for their long-term potential.

Past performance is not a guide to the future. Source: Lipper IM to 31/05/2020.

Find out more about Jupiter European Special Situations including charges

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