Key Takeaways
- • Jupiter Merian's systematic equities team has operated for over 20 years with seven-member core team, managing $13.8 billion in assets across long-short equity ($4.5bn) and long-only strategies ($9.5bn) using a unified multi-factor investment process.
- • GEAR (Jupiter Merian Global Equity Absolute Return), a $3.8 billion flagship strategy launched in 2009 as a daily-liquid UCITS fund with single leverage (100 long, 100 short structure), experienced severe drawdown of over 90% from 2018 to late 2020 but achieved strong recovery thereafter.
- • Jupiter launched GEARx, a higher-leveraged version of GEAR, on a new Cayman hedge fund platform—marking Jupiter's entry into the offshore hedge fund space and expanding product offerings for institutional investors seeking greater leverage exposure.
- • The systematic equities team maintains partnerships with leading academic researchers spanning 20 years, including Steve Satchel and Peter Pope, ensuring continuous alignment with cutting-edge research in machine learning, econometrics, AI, and other quantitative disciplines.
Summary
Jupiter Asset Management's systematic equities division, led by Amadeo Alentorn, has established itself as a durable multi-factor operator with over two decades of institutional presence. The seven-member core team—several with tenures approaching 20 years—manages $13.8 billion across complementary strategies: $4.5 billion in long-short equity vehicles and $9.5 billion in long-only mandates. Critically, the team deploys a unified investment process across all assets under management, meaning research productivity and factor insights generated for one strategy benefit the entire platform.
GEAR, the team's flagship offering, launched in 2009 as an Irish-domiciled UCITS fund with daily liquidity and single leverage structure (positioning $100 long and $100 short on $100 of investor capital). The strategy had grown to $3.8 billion in assets before suffering significant drawdown. Between 2018 and late 2020, GEAR's assets fell more than 90%—a material stress test that revealed both the leverage profile's vulnerability during market dislocation and the strategy's subsequent recovery capability. The fund's ability to rebuild from this nadir underscores operational resilience and suggests renewed institutional confidence in the systematic approach.
In response to institutional demand for varied leverage profiles, Jupiter launched GEARx on a newly established Cayman Islands hedge fund platform. GEARx represents a higher-leverage iteration of GEAR's core equity market-neutral methodology, enabling investors seeking alpha generation without beta exposure to access differentiated risk/return profiles. This platform expansion marks Jupiter's formal entry into the offshore hedge fund infrastructure, positioning the systematic equities team for broader institutional deployment.
The team's competitive moat rests partly on sustained academic partnerships spanning two decades with senior researchers including Steve Satchel and Peter Pope, combined with internal expertise spanning PhD-level quantitative disciplines. This framework enables the group to integrate machine learning, econometrics, AI, and econo-physics research into dynamic multi-factor models—positioning systematic equity selection as a sophisticated alternative to traditional fundamental approaches for institutional allocators.
GEAR, the team's flagship offering, launched in 2009 as an Irish-domiciled UCITS fund with daily liquidity and single leverage structure (positioning $100 long and $100 short on $100 of investor capital). The strategy had grown to $3.8 billion in assets before suffering significant drawdown. Between 2018 and late 2020, GEAR's assets fell more than 90%—a material stress test that revealed both the leverage profile's vulnerability during market dislocation and the strategy's subsequent recovery capability. The fund's ability to rebuild from this nadir underscores operational resilience and suggests renewed institutional confidence in the systematic approach.
In response to institutional demand for varied leverage profiles, Jupiter launched GEARx on a newly established Cayman Islands hedge fund platform. GEARx represents a higher-leverage iteration of GEAR's core equity market-neutral methodology, enabling investors seeking alpha generation without beta exposure to access differentiated risk/return profiles. This platform expansion marks Jupiter's formal entry into the offshore hedge fund infrastructure, positioning the systematic equities team for broader institutional deployment.
The team's competitive moat rests partly on sustained academic partnerships spanning two decades with senior researchers including Steve Satchel and Peter Pope, combined with internal expertise spanning PhD-level quantitative disciplines. This framework enables the group to integrate machine learning, econometrics, AI, and econo-physics research into dynamic multi-factor models—positioning systematic equity selection as a sophisticated alternative to traditional fundamental approaches for institutional allocators.
Go deeper than the headline
Research every firm in this story, track the ones that matter and get the daily briefing — free for 7 days.