Jupiter sheds £900m as nervous investors shun UK stocks
Skittish investors pulled £900m from fund manager Jupiter in the first quarter of the year as volatility on the markets continues to weigh on investors’ appetite for UK and European stocks.
The London-listed investor said it had seen £1bn worth of outflows from its retail and wholesale clients but “positive market movements” of £1.5bn, alongside £100m of positive flows from institutional clients, helped bump its assets upwards.
Jupiter’s assets under management rose by £600m on the previous quarter to £50.8bn despite fears of a banking crisis delivering a dent at the end of the quarter.
“The retail, wholesale and investment trusts channel saw net outflows of £1bn, as the ‘risk off’ environment we saw through 2022 continued into the first quarter of 2023,” Jupiter said today.
“Client demand for UK and European equities remained muted, although this was partially offset by continued positive net inflows into global equity strategies. Outflows from fixed income continued to slow, but market uncertainty remains,” it added.
The results come after a tricky year for Jupiter and fund managers across the board as investors have fled amid recent market turmoil.
The firm’s funds crashed 17 per cent in the year to December while profits plummeted 68 per cent to £58m.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said after the update today there was “little change to the trends that have impacted previous periods” and it expected the firm’s performance to remain muted for some time to come.
“We will review our forecasts later, but would not expect material change at this early stage in year,” the analysts said.
Shares in the firm are trading down over 30 per cent in the last 12 months.
Market swings and tumbling valuations of growing private firms forced Jupiter to halt investment in unlisted companies from its open-ended funds in February. The firm also offloaded its ten per cent stake in challenger bank Starling.
At the time, Jupiter chief Matt Beesely wrote to clients saying “as a result of the sustained market volatility we have experienced in recent years it is also clear to us that investor sentiment towards holding unlisted assets in open-ended funds has changed”.