De Blonay pulls out of Europe
GUY de Blonay, the star fund manager who officially rejoined Jupiter this week after leaving Henderson last year, is to push an Asia and US-focused investment strategy at the firm, reducing its exposure to the crisis-hit Eurozone.
De Blonay is due to become co-manager of the flagship Jupiter Financial Opportunities Fund on 1 June, alongside top-returning fund manager Philip Gibbs.
He previously ran the New Star Global Financials Fund – now part of the Henderson group – for eight years, returning 173 per cent to investors compared to -33 per cent for the FTSE global financials index.
The two managers will now target opportunities in Asia and the US, aiming to have over half of the fund weighted towards the two areas in the future, and will reduce its focus on Europe.
“The process of solving the Eurozone’s problem of over-indebtedness will be a long and arduous one,” de Blonay said. “However, we are still focusing on the ‘supersovereign’ economies such as Norway and Switzerland, which have very strong economies and provide a lot less risk on a macro basis.”
De Blonay previously worked at Jupiter for six years before leaving to join New Star under veteran John Duffield.
Gibbs has managed the £1.2bn Jupiter financials fund since its launch in June 1997.