He spent nine years at Allianz and has previously held sales roles at Canada Life Investments and Russell Investments.

PA Live: A world of higher inflation

Artemis has also appointed Joe Wallace and Freddie Morrissey as sales support executives, who join from Janus Henderson and Muzinich, respectively. All three will be based in Artemis’s London office.

Couzens said: “[Artemis] has a very strong range of distinctive, actively managed funds in core areas for many clients.

“Concentration risk is a key concern of many investors, so we’re seeing a trend of mitigating that risk with active strategies that have proven themselves through various market cycles.”

In this new edition of Fund in Five, we talk to Stephen Snowden, head of fixed income at Artemis, and co-fund manager of the Artemis Corporate Bond Fund, to look at the portfolio from five angles and understand why this is a good time to invest in the asset class.

The combined fund will manage over £330m assets and will be managed by Philip Wolstencroft (pictured).

Wolstencroft, who founded the ‘SmartGARP’ systematic investment process, has managed the fund since its launch in March 2001.

See also: IA: UK reinvests in November following two months of exits

The strategy is a top quartile performer in the IA Europe ex-UK sector over one, three and five years, according to FE Fundinfo data.

Wolstencroft said: “In our fund we own stocks with a historical yield of over 4%, and the growth rate in earnings and cashflows for these companies has been averaging about 7% per annum for the past decade.

“Given that the return from any asset is a function of its yield plus its growth rate, I’m positive on the outlook for the fund.”

The £117m trust’s portfolio will be run by Mark Niznik and Will Tamworth, who have co-managed the Artemis UK Smaller Companies fund for the last eight years.

The Artemis strategy is ranked top quartile over three, five and 10 years relative to its IA UK Smaller Companies peer group.

As a result of the appointment, the trust’s board has served notice to Invesco Fund Managers that it intends to terminate their appointment as investment manager.

The trust will be renamed following Artemis’s appointment, though the board said there would be no change to the trust’s investment objective, investment policy or dividend policy.

Artemis CIO Paras Anand said: “We are very grateful to the trust’s board for this opportunity. Well-run investment trusts can deliver outstanding outcomes for shareholders and are particularly suited to asset classes such as UK small caps, where the team can access a broad range of exceptional investments.”

As part of the arrangement, Artemis will charge a management fee of 0.65% of net assets up to £50m and 0.55% thereafter. Artemis will waive the first nine months of management fees following its appointment.

The agreement will come into effect in Q1 of 2025, subject to regulatory approval.

Papadopoulos gained seven years of experience at Bank of America, where he became the high yield analyst vice president after beginning as a global research summer analyst in 2017.

Holmes said: “We were very pleased to attract someone of Haris’ quality to work alongside us. We believe the high yield market continues to offer investors very attractive opportunities from a bottom-up, credit-by-credit perspective.”

See also: Artemis bolsters global income team with analyst hire

Artemis now operates as a fixed income team of eight, led by Stephen Snowden. The group has two high yield strategies which began in 2019, including the Artemis Funds (Lux) Global High Yield fund and Artemis Funds (Lux) Short-Dated Global High Yield Bond fund.

The short-dated bond fund has returned 17.8% in the past three years, relative to a sector average 8.9%.

“Jack and I have long believed the best approach in the high yield markets comes from strong credit analysis away from the bigger issues that make up the largest proportion of indices and benchmark-focused funds,” Ennett said.

“High yield continues to offer real diversification and alpha generation opportunities in a period when we are seeing many Western central banks cutting rates.”

Bonthron brings over 20 years experience to the role, having managed positive impact funds most of his career. His most recent role came at Artemis, which followed a six year stint as an investment manager with Kames Capital – now Aegon Asset Management.

He also previously held investment manager and investment director positions with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership.

See also: EY: Investors display ‘worrying level of apathy’ to ESG

The appointment marks a return to KBIGI for Bonthron, who was a portfolio manager on the firm’s Water Strategy from 2008-2010.

Bonthron is the fourth hire for the Dublin-based asset manager this year, following the appointment of Ben Cooke as a portfolio manager, Jeanne Chow Collins as ESG and engagement analyst, and Robert Fullam as an equity analyst.

In this new edition of Fund in Five, Ed Legget, co-manager of the Artemis UK Select Fund, discusses why having been out of favour with investors for several years, the valuations of UK companies are very low versus many other global equity markets.

In this Fund in Five we talk to five fund managers from the Artemis UK equity team to understand why investors who ignore the UK risk missing out on future profits

Yin spent a decade with Pioneer Investment Management as a senior analyst of Asian equities, covering consumer and financials.

She initially joined the firm on a six-month “returnship” through the Diversity Project’s Returner programme, which aims to assist professionals in returning to work following a career break.

See also: abrdn appoints head of global multi asset as Russell Barlow steps down

Paras Anand, Artemis CIO, said: “Working with the global income team, Yin has made a very positive contribution to the strategy and has established a strong working relationship with fund managers Jacob de Tusch-Lec and James Davidson.

“Global equity income is a critical client allocation, and we are keen to build on our success in this space.

“I would like to congratulate Yin on her permanent move to the Artemis team. The Returner Programme is an incredibly important initiative for attracting talented individuals back into the industry after they have taken a career break.”

In this Fund in Five, Cormac Weldon and Olivia Micklem, co-managers of the Artemis US Smaller Companies Fund, discuss why US small caps are trading at multi-decade lows relative to large caps and the opportunities this presents.

By a neat coincidence, Adrian Gosden, then of Gam, and formerly Adrian Frost’s co-manager at Artemis, was also mulling a change. He had moved to Gam in 2017, having spent 13 years at Artemis. He raised £500m in a tough environment for UK equities. However, Gam had had a series of problems at the corporate level, including a well-publicised scandal involving one of its senior fund managers, and an abortive bid from Liontrust. Gosden says this was tricky for clients that had put faith in him and co-manager Chris Morrison.

The perfect fit

Gam and Jupiter forged a deal whereby Gosden and Morrison moved to Jupiter and brought the assets of the Gam UK Equity Income fund with them. UK equities had been a sideline for Gam, with just one team, whereas Jupiter had a strong UK franchise, with smaller companies, special situations, growth, income and multi-cap funds.

Gosden says: “At Jupiter, the breadth of expertise enables us to interact and share. That’s a nice place to be. We can bounce ideas around. Jupiter has a great heritage in the UK market and is well-connected.” At a time when the market for UK equities remains relatively limited, this is important. “If anyone is looking for UK equities, they’d be looking at Jupiter,” he says.

Since April, the team has been managing the Jupiter UK Income fund (formerly named Jupiter Income). The Gam UK Equity Income fund merged into the newly created Jupiter UK Multi Cap Income fund. The multi-cap fund has a balance of 50% in larger companies and 50% in mid-sized and smaller companies. The Jupiter Income fund is 80% large and 20% small/mid-cap.

Both funds are run using the same philosophy Gosden and Morrison employed at Gam. This prioritises a focus on free cashflow for individual businesses, and therefore their ability to pay dividends. Idea generation starts with a filter on cashflow metrics. They will then look at the industry in which a company operates, and then focus on the company itself, including competitor analysis and pricing power. The team will meet with management, carrying out around 200 one-to-one meetings per year.

Read the rest of this article in the November issue of Portfolio Adviser magazine

Edelsten retired from Artemis in October 2023 after a decade managing the £236m Artemis Global Select fund and £372m Mid Wynd investment trust alongside Illingsworth.

He now joins Goshawk as chair of its investment committee. It was established by Illingsworth last year after he left Artemis for Harwood Capital Partners.

The global equity boutique made its first acquisition last month with the purchase of the Vermeer Global fund, bringing on board managers Tim Gregory, James Rowsell and Charlie Fricker.

See also: Asia Dragon proposes merger with Invesco Asia

Edelsten said: “Alex wanted to get the band back together, and I couldn’t resist. I’ve known Tim and James for years – they’re outstanding managers. And, from what I’ve seen, Charlie is on track to become one of the best of the next generation.

“We all have a very similar approach to managing money, and the chance to run a modern active ETF together as well just made this too good an opportunity to miss.”

Illingworth added: “Simon and I know how to work well together, and we can demonstrate a long-term record of outperformance.

“With the addition of Vermeer, we make one of the most experienced fund management teams in the global equity space. We’re confident our experience and approach will appeal to investors.”