European companies with a global reach

Europe is one of the world’s key economic regions and is home to many leading global companies as well as a host of smaller and medium-sized specialists. European equities warrant their place in any well-diversified investment portfolio.

Jupiter’s European Growth fund gives investors access to a concentrated portfolio of the highest-quality companies listed or headquartered in Europe. These companies are European by heritage, but their footprint is global for the most part.

The fund is co-managed by Fund Managers Mark Nichols and Mark Heslop, alongside Assistant Fund Manager Sohil Chotai. The team follows a disciplined and iterative investment process resulting in a constant competition for the fund’s capital.

Applying Porter’s Five Forces, the business strategy tool developed by Harvard professor Michael Porter, they assess a company’s value based on its long-term cash flow potential and weigh this up with their conviction in the business model and its growth potential. This approach allows the fund to constantly remain focused on what the team deems the ‘best ideas in Europe’.

Conviction matters

The fund management team have the freedom to seek only the best quality European companies on behalf of the fund’s investors. The portfolio is therefore focused on their highest conviction ideas, resulting in a concentrated portfolio of about 35–45 companies.

High-quality franchises with a growth focus

Through bottom-up stock selection the team aims to find companies with high barriers to entry and the potential to deliver high and sustainable returns on invested capital. They also want to invest in companies that can benefit from market inefficiencies and are well placed to benefit from secular growth opportunities. Finally, the presence of a strong company management team whose interests are aligned with shareholders is key.

Buy companies, not countries

Whatever one’s opinion of the political and economic fortunes of Europe , it should be remembered that equity investors don’t buy countries, they buy companies, and Europe is home to many of the world’s best. The fund management team put investors’ capital to work in some of the highest-quality businesses around, many of which have global business operations and aren’t reliant on economic growth in Europe for their long-term fortunes.

Stewardship of client capital

The team believes that equity returns are best understood at the individual business level, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors are an integral part of their research and investment process. They consider these elements as important building blocks for long-term value creation, and won’t invest in a company until they have met with management to understand the alignment between business managers and shareholders.

Meet the team

Jupiter European Growth Team

Mark Nichols – Prior to joining Jupiter, Mark managed European equity portfolios at Columbia Threadneedle and before that at BMO Global Asset Management (F&C). He began his investment career in the European equities team at Invesco in 2001.


Mark Heslop – Mark joined Jupiter in September 2019 as a European equity manager and smaller companies specialist. Prior to joining Jupiter, Mark was an equity fund manager at Colombia Threadneedle for 11 years where he managed a global smaller companies fund and a European smaller companies fund. He began his investment career as a chemicals and industrials analyst at Citi in 1999.

Important Information

Market and exchange rate movements can cause the value of an investment to fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than originally invested.

 

The fund invests in a small number of holdings and as such carries more risk than funds spread across a larger number of holdings. This fund invests mainly in shares and it is likely to experience fluctuations in price which are larger than funds that invest only in bonds and/or cash. The KIID and Prospectus are available from Jupiter on request. This fund can invest more than 35% of its value in securities issued or guaranteed by an EEA state.