Jupiter is delighted to announce the appointment of Richard Curling as a Fund Manager.

Richard, who joins Jupiter on 6 March 2006, will take on responsibility for the Jupiter UK Smaller Companies Fund in due course, after a hand-over period. He has extensive experience of managing smaller company and other institutional mandates at Deutsche Asset Management and has a consistently strong performance track record. His appointment will, therefore, also enhance Jupiter's institutional fund management capability.

Most recently Richard was managing director and Head of Small Cap at Deutsche Asset Management. In this position, which he held for more than ten years, Richard was responsible for managing the UK and European Small Cap team and running small cap equity mandates. Between 1996 and 2003, he was also Head of Global Small Cap, with responsibility for the global/EAFE Small Cap product.

Richard will take over the Jupiter UK Smaller Companies Fund from Philip Matthews, who will move to the UK equity income desk to support Anthony Nutt. The decision to strengthen this team reflects the strong growth in demand for equity income products from clients - a trend Jupiter believes will continue as the population ages.

Edward Bonham Carter, joint chief executive of Jupiter Asset Management, said: "Over the past five years, 92.5% of Jupiter's funds under management have outperformed their sector averages*. This is a record we are very proud of, but we recognise that to continue achieving strong returns as assets under management grow, we need to carry on investing in our fund management team. We are delighted to have strengthened our UK equity desk, both through the appointment of Richard Curling and Philip Matthews' move to Anthony Nutt's team."

Richard Curling said: "Jupiter is one of the most respected fund management groups and has an extremely strong reputation for managing UK assets. I am delighted to be joining the team."