Lauren Hardy, Portfolio Adviser, 15 MAY 2024:
The upcoming retirement of Jupiter’s head of small and mid-cap equities, Dan Nickols (pictured), should mean “business as usual” for investors in his Jupiter UK Smaller Companies fund and the Rights and Issues investment trust, according to professional fund buyers. However, others warn against buying into the funds at this point, until there is “further clarity” on the future of Jupiter’s UK equity offering amid high levels of staff turnover.
Last Friday (10 May), it was announced that Nickols will be retiring from his fund manager responsibilities at the end of next month..
In terms of how both the fund and the trust will be run following Nickols’ departure, co-manager of RIII Cable will become lead manager of both mandates, supported by Tim Service.
Before joining Jupiter as an investment manager in 2019, Cable spent 11 years as a member of the UK smaller companies team at M&G..
Looking at RIII specifically, QuotedData co-founder James Carthew said: “While it is a shame to see the management line-up change so soon after the handover from longstanding manager Simon Knott, as far as the trust goes this should be business as usual.
“Matt Cable has worked alongside Dan since 2020 and we do not expect to see much, if any, change to the Rights and Issues portfolio as a result of this move.”
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