Jupiter affirms strong performance in face of market volatility

FTSE 250 listed Jupiter Fund Management has had a “positive” year with the delivery of strong investment performance, after all fees and net inflows, against a backdrop of market volatility and a variety of macro geopolitical events.

Net outflows for the quarter were £373m, £355m of which were net mutual fund outflow. The group attributed this to its institutional clients rebalancing their holidays in the company’s Merlin and European strategies.

Inflows to the group’s absolute return and fixed income strategies remained strong and inflows into its emerging markets strategy looked “promising”.

Cumulative net mutual fund inflows were £859m in the year to 31 December 2016, resulting in a total assets under management (AUM) of £40.5bn compared to £35.7bn at 31 December 2015.

The effects of wider market uncertainty during the year were “muted” with net inflows and investment performance, as well as currency effects, leading to mutual fund AUM increasing 13% to £35.2bn as at 31 December 2016.

Chief executive Maarten Slendebroek said: “Overall, 2016 was positive for Jupiter. We continued to diversify our business by product, client type and geography and delivered strong investment performance after fees across a broad range of strategies.”

Looking ahead, the group believe in the resilience of its business model in the face of the current state of global political and economic uncertainty affecting investor sentiment into 2017.

The share price fell 5.08% to 422.40p at 0854 GMT on Thursday.