Davies proposed to take over Jupiter Global Trust

The revamp, which involves the appointment of Steve Davies as lead manager, would see the trust shift from using a mixed portfolio of UK stocks and global funds to a “new, more focused UK growth strategy”.

The strategy “substantially mirrors” the approach of the £1.6bn Jupiter UK Growth fund, run by Mr Davies, in a closed-ended format.

Under the proposals, set to go before shareholders at a general meeting on April 18, the trust would be renamed as the Jupiter UK Growth Investment Trust.

The trust’s current manager, Richard Curling, would continue to manage the Jupiter Fund of Investments trusts, the Jupiter Monthly Income fund and institutional assets, and the Jupiter UK Alpha fund.

Jupiter Global Trust chairman Tom Bartlam said: “The company’s current mixed mandate has served us well in recent years as both a source of benchmark-beating returns and a differentiating factor within the investment company classifications.

“It has become increasingly clear to us, however, that the market for investment companies is evolving rapidly and we believe these proposed changes will enable us to reach a new market of shareholders while maintaining the potential for capital growth.”

According to FE Analytics, the trust has returned 18.6 per cent over three years, compared with 19 per cent from its peer group, the AIC Global sector.

Adviser view

John Stirling, director of Walden Capital, said when an investment trust takes a radically different approach, there can be several reasons behind it.

“It is a risk for Jupiter to disturb their existing investors with an unproven (although I think reasonable) assumption of future demand from new, especially with a close-ended product where supply and demand are so important to share price.”