GAM Investment’s European equity team, consisting of FE fundinfo Alpha Manager Niall Gallagher, Chis Sellers and Chris Legg, are set to join Jupiter Asset Management in the summer of 2025.
Responsibility for Jupiter’s existing European equity range, currently managed by Mark Nichols and Mark Heslop, will be transitioned to Gallagher’s team next year.
Gallagher and his team manage several high-profile strategies at GAM, including the €524.6m GAM Star European Equity fund, which has enjoyed top-quartile performance in the IA Europe Ex UK sector over the past five years.
Jupiter has made a proposal for the GAM funds to be transferred to its platform and run on a sub-advised basis, but as of yet, GAM has not agreed to this.
Kiran Nandra, head of equities at Jupiter, said: “We believe that their strong investment track record and institutionally-driven investment approach will lead to improved client outcomes for a broader range of clients.”
Jupiter’s European equity range includes its flagship Jupiter European fund, which Nichols and Heslop took over in October 2019. The £2.5bn fund is currently in the IA Europe Excluding UK sector’s bottom quartile over one, three and five years.
Performance of Jupiter European vs sector and index over 5yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Darius McDermott, managing director at FundCalibre, commented: “Mark Heslop and Mark Nichols are both accomplished fund managers who, for the majority of their tenure, have had to navigate in an environment where quality growth investing has been largely out-of-favour.
“Given this is a consistent period of underperformance, we understand why Jupiter has made the difficult decision, in their opinion, to act in the best interests of their clients, by replacing the current team.”
Gallagher, Sellers and Legg will join former GAM colleagues Chris Morrison and Adrian Gosden, who moved to Jupiter earlier this year to take over Ben Whitmore’s Jupiter Income Trust. They also brought their GAM UK Equity Income fund with them.