Multi-managerAug 18 2016

Jupiter Merlin team joins gold rush with BlackRock addition

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Jupiter Merlin team joins gold rush with BlackRock addition

John Chatfeild-Roberts and his Merlin multi-manager team have upped their exposure to gold and bought in to Julie Dean’s Sanditon UK fund in the latest set of changes to their funds of funds.

The team’s £610m Worldwide Portfolio introduced a 2.5 per cent weighting to the BlackRock Gold & General fund last month, according to its latest factsheet.

Merlin last had exposure to the BlackRock fund - whic has rallied some 134 per cent this year as investors return to the precious metal and related equities - in 2011-12.

With bullion continuing to benefit from concerns over the weakness of currencies such as sterling, the Jupiter managers have also boosted gold exposure in their other portfolios.

The weighting to the ETF Securities Physical Gold ETF in £1.9bn Merlin Growth Portfolio, for example, rose from 2.8 per cent in June to 4.7 per cent by the end of July.

In the same portfolio, the team have also bought into Julie Dean’s Sanditon UK fund, with Invesco Perpetual’s UK Aggressive portfolio - now known as UK Focus - falling out of the list of holdings.

As a result, the weighting to UK equities jumped from 30.9 per cent in June to 31.1 per cent in July.

Changes to the Growth and Worldwide portfolios come after the team sold significant stakes in the Artemis Income and Kames High Yield Bond funds from its £3.6bn Merlin Income and £1.5bn Balanced vehicles in June.

Exposure was removed after both funds saw manager departures during the month.