Jupiter ‘happy’ at bumper £5 million FSCS refund

‘We believe Jupiter’s best in class reputation means that it will eventually thrive in a RDR compliant world. However, we are more cautious in the short run given what will most likely be a choppy transition period of the IFA community.’  

Jupiter chief executive Edward Bonham Carter (pictured) said he is not too worried about this, while pointing out the group continues to look to diversify its business.

‘We have been diversifying our business and we also believe in focus, so we are not too concerned about our exposure to the UK market, Bonham Carter told Wealth Manager. 'We believe it’s better to focus on excellence rather than be overly diversified.’

Johnson added: ‘The UK market has always had a good equity and long term savings culture so it’s a good market to be highly exposed to.'     

Market reaction

Commenting on the results Bonham Carter told the market: ‘Our strong investment performance, brand and distribution capabilities have helped Jupiter steer a steady course through another challenging year for financial markets.

'This, combined with our increasingly robust balance sheet and confidence in our growth prospects, has led the board to recommend increasing our total dividend by 13% to 8.8p.’

Bonham Carter is cautiously optimistic on the future: 'It is possible the current rally in financial markets will be sustained, assuming the ECB continues to support weaker economies and the US recovery is not derailed.

'However, in reality, not much has changed from a year ago and markets are still facing several long term challenges. While savers across Europe remain squeezed in the short term due to low wage growth and increases in the cost of living, the structural growth drivers for the savings market remain intact.'

The market welcomed the figures, with shares rising 2.34%, or 7.7p to 337.2p by 10.45am to sit just shy of their 12-month high of 337.2p.