William Meadon’s decision to step down as joint manager of the JPMorgan Mid Cap Investment Trust has been revealed in its latest results statement.
The investment management team of Mr Meadon and Georgina Brittain has been in place since April 2012.
In a statement, the trust said: “As part of a planned succession following the appointment of Georgina Brittain to the fund management team, William Meadon will be standing down as joint fund manager following the Company’s forthcoming Annual General Meeting.
“William has been involved with the company on and off since 1998 and became involved again with the management of the company in May 2009.”
Ms Brittain has been assisted by Katen Patel since April 2013.
The investment trust, which invests primarily in UK mid cap stocks, posted earnings per share for the year of 21.67 pence for the year to June 30 2014.
The trust reported that its total return on net assets for the year was 18.3 per cent, just ahead of its benchmark index, the FTSE 250 which returned 17.8 per cent on a total return basis.
Chairman Andrew Barker revealed that the board has decided to propose a final dividend of 12.5 pence, payable on November 12 this year.
In its full year results, the investment trust confirmed it did not repurchase any shares as its discount narrowed from 14.7 per cent to 11.5 per cent.
Mr Barker acknowledged that the use of gearing had assisted performance in the past year and that it is usually in the range of -5 per cent to +25 per cent.
He said: “Given the manager’s recent more cautious view of the outlook, gearing was reduced towards the end of the company’s financial year and stood at 8.1 per cent as at the end of June 2014.”
Mr Barker added: “The UK economy continues its recovery prompting upgrades to forecasts for GDP growth.
“This backdrop will support the growth of UK businesses, and despite recent setbacks in the UK mid cap sector, which our investment managers believe have been primarily as a result of profit taking and not underlying shortcomings within the mid cap universe, they remain confident that the sector will continue to generate interesting and rewarding opportunities.”
