Richard Buxton is to retire later this year after a decades-long career in asset management including stints at Barings, Schroders, Old Mutual Global Investors and, latterly, Jupiter Asset Management.
Buxton will leave Jupiter at the end of the summer, the company said today in a statement (June 2).
The management of the UK equity funds he runs will be passed to Ed Meier and Errol Francis, with no change to the investment process and strategy.
Buxton spent 11 years at Barings, latterly as head of UK equities, before moving to Schroders to take up the same role.
He spent five years in the same role at Old Mutual Global Investors, leading a management buy-out of the business when its South African parent sold off its UK operations and split the asset management arm from the advice arm - now called Quilter.
The business was renamed Merian Global Investors and was bought by Jupiter in 2020.
Buxton first worked with Francis at Barings, and the pair were joined by Meier at Schroders in 2006 where the three ran their UK Alpha strategy.
Francis once joked that his nickname was "footnote" because of the number of times press releases about Buxton's career moves contained a reference in the last line to Francis also moving.
Buxton said it had been a “pleasure and a huge privilege” to have been entrusted with so many people’s savings over so many years.
“While I am looking forward to pursuing other interests, not least my passion for the arts, I have always said that investing is ‘in my blood,” he said.
“I feel extraordinarily lucky to have been able to pursue a career in a field that has always held such a fascination for me, and to have done so surrounded by some exceptionally talented colleagues."
Matthew Beesley, Jupiter's chief executive, said Buxton was one of the most respected investors of his generation.
“Consistent with our strategic focus on increasing scale across the business, beyond this existing strength across UK equities, we have ambitious growth plans for both our equity and fixed income platforms as we seek to broaden our appeal to clients.
“Jupiter is known as a truly active manager with a range of differentiated investment capabilities, and Richard’s career has been built on extolling the value that comes from being an active investment manager.”
Buxton rose to prominence at Schroders before agreeing to joining what was then Old Mutual Asset Management following a meeting at a motorcycle racing event with the latter firm's then chief executive Julian Ide.
His Old Mutual UK Alpha fund reached £2bn in size at its peak and subsequently became the Merian, and then Jupiter UK Alpha fund.
Its assets have shrunk in recent years to some £600mn as a result of the managers' exposure to value stocks and in particular a high level of exposure to bank shares. Those investments helped Buxton's fund perform well over the past year.
At the height of the global financial crisis in 2008, Buxton described the banks as "the buying opportunity of a lifetime."
He became chief executive of Old Mutual Global Investors, replacing Ide, and then led its management buy-out - though he stood down as chief executive in 2019 to focus on fund management and was replaced by Mark Gregory.
The company was sold to Jupiter the next year.
sally.hickey@ft.com
