With some in the investment industry seemingly holding their breath on the Ben Whitmore and Alex Savvides reshuffle, we thought it wise to see how their respective funds have fared since news of the former’s departure broke on January 9.
Outflows from Whitmore's old fund, Jupiter Special Situations, have totalled £120mn in the two calendar months following the announcement, representing an AUM drop of almost 3 per cent each month, according to data from Morningstar Direct.
In purely monetary terms, this compares fairly favourably with the £310mn which was pulled from JOHCM UK Dynamic - Savvides's former fund - between January 2 and March 13.
Considering that at the start of 2024 Jupiter Special Situations was more than £2bn in size while JOHCM UK Dynamic was £1.3bn in size makes those outflows a little starker.
Meanwhile, cash leaving Jupiter Global Value – the smallest mandate of his four – has totalled £23mn, which represents a slightly more hefty average of 6 per cent each month.
Whitmore’s other two funds, Jupiter Income Trust and Jupiter Global Value Equity, have remained reasonably steady, with negligible difference in flows since the beginning of 2023.
Given Jupiter had the luxury of lining up a replacement before their star manager upped sticks - with Savvides announcing his departure almost at the same time as Whitmore announced his - it is perhaps unsurprising that it has experienced smaller outflows.
JOHCM UK Dynamic's outflows equates to around £5mn per day, or, alternatively, two rounds of Guinness in the City.
Asset Allocator recently spoke to Marcus Brookes of Quilter who said he is conducting due diligence on JOHCM UK Dynamic while maintaining a discourse with manager Mark Costar before deciding on his next move.
Quilter has held JOHCM UK Dynamic in its £11bn Cirilium range since early 2022 and in its higher risk portfolios it is the largest single UK equity fund holding.
Just two months have passed since the announcement, and we’re supposing that many allocators are in a similar position: as yet undecided where to park their cash - potentially until Whitmore’s new value boutique opens its doors.
There’s presumably not much point in pulling too much cash from Jupiter until a viable alternative is up and running, and we may see more money following him in the months to come.
Whitmore, perhaps drawing inspiration from the three little pigs, has named his new venture Brickwood.
And in the meantime, investors will huff and puff over his departure but it seems they won’t blow the house down.
