Jupiter European Growth D EUR A Inc Dist |
by Michael Born
Jupiter announced in June 28, 2022, that chief executive officer Andrew Formica intends to retire from his role, effective from 1 October 2022. Formica will be succeeded by Matthew Beesley, the group's chief investment officer, who joined the firm in January 2022. Until he formally takes over, Beesley is promoted to deputy CEO with immediate effect and will retain his global chief investment officer responsibilities during the transition. Formica, who is planning to relocate to his native Australia, will remain in the business until 30 June 2023 to ensure a smooth leadership transition and to assist with a number of strategic objectives, such as supporting the Asian business and development of the Australian market offering. Beesley has nearly 25 years of experience in the investment industry. He joined from Artemis, where he had been CIO since April 2020. Previously, Beesley was head of investments at GAM Investments from 2017 to 2020, and before that head of global equities at Henderson. There, he crossed paths with Jupiter’s current CEO, Andrew Formica, who at the time was CEO at Henderson. The Parent Pillar rating of Above Average remains in place. But leadership transition and a new incoming CIO bring some uncertainties that we will try to clarify when we meet with Beesley as part of our upcoming parent review. |
We continue to have faith in the quality-focused, long-term approach on display in the Jupiter European Growth strategy, and the team that drives it. As a result, both People and Process continue to be rated at Above Average. The strategy has been managed since 2019 by Mark Nichols and Mark Heslop, who joined from Columbia Threadneedle, where Nichols had run the large-cap-focused European Select strategy and Heslop led on Global and European smaller companies mandates. Heslop and Nichols bring over 20 years’ experience apiece in European equities. They brought along deputy portfolio manager Sohil Chotai and have hired two junior portfolio managers who have all settled in well for some team stability over the last few years. Heslop and Nichols took over from long-term manager Alexander Darwall, who departed to start his own boutique. The process is distinctive, quality-oriented, and generally results in a concentrated, conviction-driven portfolio, providing some continuity from Darwall’s tenure. Both Nichols and Heslop ran money with a similar philosophy at CT, and they have continued to build on their track record at Jupiter. They look for companies with enduring competitive advantages that can reinvest capital at high growth rates and compound over the long term, thereby resulting in more sustained growth versus market expectations. Compared with Darwall, the managers bring more of a focus on quality and less on aggressive growth, and the likes of Wirecard were sold after they moved over. Generally, the portfolio has shown a higher tilt to quality metrics such as return on equity and cash flow growth versus the benchmark, and while the portfolio looks somewhat expensive, we believe the long-term investment horizon can justify the relatively high valuations. Although performance has underwhelmed versus the FTSE World Europe benchmark and the Europe large-cap growth equity Morningstar Category average since Nichols and Heslop took over management duties, this can largely be attributed to 2022 when their quality growth style was hit hard. The market had a strong value rotation where low-quality cyclicals were favored, which are certainly not names where they like to invest. Over that year, they were in the bottom quartile of the peer group, while 2023 proved to be a much stronger year for relatives and a return to form for the style, as their overweightings to Novo Nordisk and RELX drove outperformance. Overall, longer-term numbers are ahead of both the benchmark and peer group when taking into account their track record at Columbia Threadneedle. |
Morningstar Pillars | |
People | Above Average |
Parent | Average |
Process | Above Average |
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