InvestmentsMar 20 2019

JP Morgan changes manager of £1bn trust

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JP Morgan changes manager of £1bn trust

The long-serving lead manager on the £1bn JP Morgan American investment trust is to step aside to move to other roles within JP Morgan.

Garrett Fish, who has run the large cap component of the trust for 15 years, will be replaced by Jonathan Simon and Timothy Parton.

The trust has historically been run on the basis of approximately 90 per cent of the capital being deployed in large caps and 10 per cent in small caps.

The managers succeeding Mr Fish will also assume responsibility for large caps, but, subject to shareholder approval, will run a more concentrated portfolio than in the past.

Mr Fish typically had 60-100 stocks in his part of the portfolio, but the new managers intend to have only 30 to 40 shares.

The small cap part of the portfolio is unchanged by the announcement made this morning (March 20), and will continue to be run by Eytan Shapiro.

The JP Morgan American investment trust has returned 99 per cent over the past five years, compared with 73 per cent for the average fund in the AIC UK North America sector in the same time period.

As part of the same announcement the board of the trust has confirmed that JP Morgan Asset Management has waived its management fee for the nine months from the start of January 2019, and abolished the performance fee on the trust, backdated to the start of January 2019.

Kevin Carter, chair of the JP Morgan American investment trust, said: "The board believes a more concentrated investment approach for the company’s large cap portfolio, combining the best ideas from the manager’s growth and value investment teams, will offer attractive prospects for the company going forward."

"Alongside the proposed changes in investment process, the board of the company has negotiated the removal of the performance fee backdated to 1 January 2019 alongside a waiver of the management fee for a period of nine months from 1 June 2019 for the benefit of the company’s shareholders. The company’s management fee remains unchanged.”

The trust trades at a discount to net assets of 4.5 per cent.

david.thorpe@ft.com