Asset manager Jupiter rebrands fund to focus on financial innovation

Guy de Blonay, the manager of the fund, believes digital transformation of the financial services sector represents “an unprecedented long-term opportunity”.

Jupiter Asset management will rebrand its £82m Jupiter Global Financials fund to the Jupiter Financial Innovation Fund, effective from 3rd December, to reflect the opportunities presented by the rapid digital disruption to financial services. 

Managed by Guy de Blonay since 2015, the Jupiter Global Financials fund is being repositioned with the aim of taking advantage of the fintech revolution. The fund manager believes the digital transformation of the financial services sector represents “an unprecedented long-term opportunity”.

De Blonay, who has over 17 years investing in financials, says the financial world is quickly changing.  

“The financial services industry is a completely different beast today than it was even five years ago. Ever more sophisticated customers now expect seamless, digital-led service and they aren’t afraid to switch to newer competitors if traditional names fail to keep up,” he said.

 “With these changes, we believe we will be better placed to capitalise on the ongoing and irreversible digital transformation of the financial services sector.”     

The fund will be renamed the Jupiter Financial Innovation Fund and its investment objective and  de Blonay will have a mandate to allocate assets towards listed financial technology-focused innovators, across the full breadth of the financial services supply chain.

The fund will aim to achieve capital growth in the long term by investing in such equity and equity-related securities linked to financial innovation.

Paypal, Visa and Mastercard all feature in de Blonay’s 10 largest holdings but he also has a substantial allocation to small and mid cap stocks.

The challenge for fund managers and other investors only investing in listed equities is a familiar one across technology sectors, the preponderance of disruptors to stay in private markets. The recent Initial Public Offering of Funding Circle, however, is just one of many firms that have or are preparing to list on public stock markets.

In addition many large financial services firms and banks are integrating fintech start-ups or launching their own large digital transformation projects.

The fund will now focus on traditional financial services companies that are embracing the digital transformation (adopters) as well as the disruptive innovators bringing financial technology solutions such as mobile finance, data analytics, payments and financial infrastructure to the sector (enablers).