Chatfeild-Roberts: Start of 2016 was 'perfect storm' for Merlin Income

Fixed interest allocation hurt returns

John Chatfeild-Roberts, head of Jupiter's Independent Funds Team, has explained the reasons behind the underperformance of his Income portfolio at the start of the year, saying market conditions created significant headwinds for the vehicle.

The £3.9bn Merlin Income portfolio is down 1.9% this year to 8 March, versus the IA Mixed Investment 20%-60% Shares sector average fall of 0.7%, but over the past month performance has picked up and it has outperformed the sector. Chatfeild-Roberts (pictured) said the fund suffered during the first six weeks of the year from having no US dollar or government bond exposure, as well as its high equity allocation. "The first month and a half of 2016 was the perfect storm. There was a strong dollar, while we had a lot of sterling exposure; we felt government bonds were expensive, but it t...