Veteran stock picker Richard Buxton announced his retirement last week, leaving the £598m Jupiter UK Alpha fund in the hands of Errol Francis and Ed Meier.
Buxton is renowned in the fund management industry after more than 40 years in the business. Darius McDermott, managing director of FundCalibre, described him as “one of the most experienced and highly regarded investors in the industry”.
With such a celebrated name leaving the helm, it begs the question: how will this impact the running of Jupiter UK Alpha?
Although Buxton’s successors have worked alongside him for a number of years, Fairview Investing director Ben Yearsley said “the jury is out” on whether they can live up to his legacy.
He called Buxton one of “the go-to UK fund managers” who was “never afraid to take contrary positions”, leaving Francis and Meier with some big shoes to fill.
Yearsley may be sceptical about the fund’s future, but Francis has a longstanding relationship with Buxton that dates back to their early days at Schroders.
Buxton pioneered his top-performing UK Alpha approach at Schroders in 2002 with the Schroder UK Alpha Plus fund (which was up 246.2% over his tenure) before moving to Old Mutual Global Investors in 2009.
He became chief executive of Old Mutual Global Investors and led a management buyout in 2017. The carved-out business was renamed Merian Global Investors and sold to Jupiter three years later.
Buxton has managed the Jupiter UK Alpha fund (under three different names) for over a decade and delivered a total return of 176.9% by investing predominantly in UK large-caps, beating the IA UK All Companies sector by 33.2 percentage points.
Total return of fund vs benchmark and sector under Buxton
Source: FE Analytics
“He has been rewarded for his consistent process of focusing on large UK companies that he believes have strong business models, healthy balance sheets and as yet unrecognised potential,” McDermott said.
Francis and Buxton made the move to Old Mutual together, so Jupiter is “hoping for a smooth transition” given their long history, according to McDermott.
Andy Merricks, fund manager at 8AM Global, said Francis and Meier were an appropriate choice as successors. The departure of Buxton and his years of experience will certainly be a loss, but the new managers should ensure that the strategy remains intact, according to Merricks.
“There have been a number of ups and downs over the years but you don’t get to remain in the fund management business for nearly 40 years if you are not exceptionally good at what you do,” he said.
“The world of the fund manager is a very different one today to the past and I’m sure that the individuals taking on the baton within the Jupiter UK Alpha fund have been very well trained and well prepared for the job in hand. I wouldn’t be concerned if I was an investor in the fund.”