Jupiter Asset Management has launched the Jupiter Strategic Reserve Fund, managed by Jupiter’s highly regarded multi-asset investment team Miles Geldard and Lee Manzi.
This unit trust is a global multi-asset portfolio with a total return objective, and is the onshore version of the established Jupiter Strategic Total Return Fund Sicav, which launched in October 2010. With its emphasis on capital growth and low volatility, it aims specifically to meet investors’ requirements in these more difficult and volatile times.
In less than a dozen years investors have experienced two equity bear markets and previously unseen levels of volatility. At the same time bond yields have fallen to record lows with equivalent UK government bond prices in some cases reaching levels not seen in hundreds of years. This almost unprecedented situation serves to emphasise the importance of intelligent and dynamic asset allocation in the management of portfolios.
The Jupiter Strategic Reserve Fund meets the need for this type of product in a cost effective way. It invests directly in liquid tradable securities, including equities, corporate and convertible bonds, government bonds, and currencies. The managers will use a flexible asset allocation policy with the aim of reducing the impact of any major downturn. Agnostic with respect to asset classes, they select those assets they consider to offer the best risk/reward trade-off so as to provide a liquid and transparent portfolio. They generally avoid structured products and third party funds.
Miles and Lee joined Jupiter in 2010 and have worked together for 14 years. They have over 40 years combined investment experience. Their investment style, which has been developed and used by Miles since 1998, combines top-down strategic asset allocation based on macroeconomic analysis with bottom-up security selection.
Charlie Crole, Institutional Director at Jupiter Asset Management, says: “The launch of the Jupiter Strategic Reserve Fund reaffirms Jupiter’s commitment to the UK institutional market in general and the pensions market in particular. Its emphasis on generating absolute returns meets a growing need from institutional and pension fund investors for cautiously-managed funds which offer the prospect of a lower-risk positive outcome.
“The fund will also provide a solution for the defined contribution pensions market, an area we expect to grow strongly in the coming years. We are fortunate to have managers of Miles and Lee’s calibre, with well-established expertise in multi-asset investing.”
Edward Bonham Carter (pictured), Jupiter’s Chief Executive of Jupiter Asset Management, says: “The issue of adequate retirement provision is one of the most significant challenges we currently face as a nation. Changing demographics in the UK mean that most people will have to work harder for longer. It also means that the way people invest is likely to change, with investors, consultants and other intermediaries increasingly looking for strategies that can provide capital growth with lower volatility We believe the Jupiter Strategic Reserve Fund has the potential to meet these objectives.”
