Jupiter Income gets new manager

By DARREN BEHAR
Updated:

 

Giant investment house Jupiter has replaced William Littlewood - star fund manger of its Income unit trust.

The fund will now be run by Anthony Nutt who has looked after Jupiter's High Income fund. The move comes three months after Mr Littlewood went on a three-month sabbatical, sparking adviser concerns over the Income trust's future. Mr Nutt's appointment has relieved many advisers.

The unit trust has more than £1.5bn invested and has been a consistently good performer. But figures from Standard & Poor's Micropal show the fund has slipped in the last year in performance terms.

The fund was run by Prakash Rajasekaran - who also manages the new technology fund - in Mr Littlewood's absence.

James Dalby, of Bates Investments, said: 'We are pleased the uncertainty is finally over. Anthony Nutt has a good history and will I'm sure continue to make the Income fund a worthwhile investment.

'He is to sharpen the trusts focus. We will keep monitoring the trust but will not move people out of it. And we still feel there is a lot of potential here for new investors.'

But others are still sceptical about the fund's future performance. Jason Hollands, at Best Investment, said: 'At least this puts the uncertainty to an end. Though Anthony Nutt, is a respected fund manager, there is clearly some turbulence ahead for him.

'Investors whose objective is capital growth should consider switching into a combination of Jupiter's UK Special Situations and UK Smaller Companies funds. Investors needing equity income should consider a transfer to the likes of Newton Income or BWD UK Equity Income.'

Jupiter is one of the most successful fund managers of recent years and currently manages more than £11bn of investors' money.

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