Chatfeild-Roberts boosts tech exposure in Jupiter MM range

23 October 2009 1:23 pm | By Hannah Smith

The move comes quickly after the addition of the Henderson global technology income fund to the growth portfolio in September.

Tech funds have seen a turnaround in fortunes in the past 12 months with the average fund in the IMA technology and telecommunications sector up 20.4 per cent.

Head of independent funds John Chatfeild-Roberts says: “We have started investing in technology funds for two reasons. Firstly, we believe that many companies in the sector are now in much better shape than several years ago with cash on their balance sheets and valuations that do not look excessive yet the area remains unloved.

“Furthermore, there is a good chance that the launch of Windows 7 will drive an upgrade cycle - Vista was not that popular as an operating system and so most people are still using Windows XP which is several years old.”

Jupiter merged its £28m global technology fund into its £182m global managed fund in April 2009. The group said that although a number of good tech companies still operated, the bursting of the dotcom bubble had resulted in a geographic narrowing of the sector.

Hargreaves Lansdown senior analyst Meera Patel says: “The technology sector has done well but lots of managers, particularly those in the unconstrained space, already invest there so investors will have exposure.”

The multi-manager team has also added the Schroder income fund to its merlin income porfolio in a bid to widen the number of recovery plays. The £1.1bn fund, which is managed by Nick Purves, is currently top of the IMA UK equity income sector over three years.

The new additions come following strong inflows into the £3.5bn multi-manager range, with £250m of assets coming in the past month.

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