Matthews has been at Jupiter for four years and has 14 years’ industry experience, he has managed the Jupiter Growth and Income Fund since 2006 and is deputy manager of the Jupiter Income Trust, working with Ben Whitmore. In January he was appointed to manage the Jupiter UK Alpha Fund, which was previously managed by Ben Whitmore.
A spokesperson for Jupiter said the company was in no hurry to name a successor because Matthews would not be leaving until October, posing the question of who would look after the Schroder UK Alpha Plus Fund in the interim – given Buxton and his number two Errol Francis are leaving mid-June.
‘Two-way courtship’
Robin Stoakley, managing director of UK intermediary at Schroders, said global head of equities Peter Harrison, who became de facto head of UK equities with the announcement of Buxton’s departure, had been in charge of the recruitment process.
"Head hunters were hired, Peter’s team undertook several screens to look out potential candidates in terms of performance and then it was a question of discretely interviewing them. It was the normal process when hiring a replacement and probably the most important factor is if they are going to fit into our environment culturally.
"We had to be confident the Schroders environment would give them the maximum chance of delivering performance both we and they want to deliver. Peter had protracted meetings, and a few of them, with both Alex and Phil. I would describe it as a two-way courtship," Stoakley said.
Matthews’ track record
According to FE Analytics, Matthews has returned 232% over the past ten years, versus 182.4% from his peer group composite benchmark. Over five years he has returned 56.1% compared with the peer group’s 30.5% and over three years 30% compared with 26.5% from his peers.
FE’s verdict of Matthews is that over a long track record he has outperformed the peer group more often than not and stock picking has made a contribution to these results, which have not been particularly exposed to falling markets.
Breese’s track record
Meanwhile, Alex Breese will join from Neptune Investment Management in July, where he has been since May 2005 and is head of UK equities. He currently manages the Neptune UK Special Situations Fund and is assistant manager on the Neptune Income Fund and the Neptune Quarterly Income Fund.
Breese has also, over a fairly lengthy track record consistently managed to outperform the peer group (see below), FE’s report on the manager states, and good stockpicking has had a material positive impact on results.
Over five years he has returned 63.2% versus 28.2% from his peer group composite and over three years 45.5% compared with 30.3% from the benchmark.
