Byline: RUTH SUNDERLAND
FUND manager Edward Bonham Carter is used to others taking the limelight - and so he should be, since his sister, Helena, has been a famous actress for more than 20 years. 'She is a better actor than me, and I am a better fund manager,' he says.
I ask him whether he is sure about that.
'Oh yes. I prefer to come up with my own lines,' he quips back, quick as a flash.
It is not just Helena, though. He has also been upstaged by his former boss, the larger-than-life John Duffield.
Bonham Carter was for years Duffield's understudy at Jupiter Asset Management - until his erstwhile mentor, who founded the firm, left after an almighty row with Commerzbank, the German bank to which he had sold a large stake.
That thrust a blinking Bonham Carter firmly into the spotlight in a starring role.
That was six years ago, but Duffield leaves a big shadow. He has set up another operation, New Star, which is headquartered in Knightsbridge, just down the road from Jupiter's offices on Hyde Park Corner.
There is an impish quality to Bonham Carter that is not just down to his small stature, but also his cheeky sense of humour.
On the subject of life without Duffield, he says with a laugh: 'There is certainly less noise. I am a very different type of person to John.
'He used to call me a vegetarian and I would counter that by saying I am omnivorous, and he is carnivorous.
'We don't manage our business in reference to John. Rivals such as Fidelity give us very good competition and so does New Star.' As for the Germans, Bonham Carter claims to get on with them very well. 'Commerzbank have been very good owners. I give them a pat on the back for leaving us alone and not interfering. The chairman recently came over and called us a gem,' he says.
Perhaps because of his upbringing, he displays a breadth of vision not always evident in the average City suit. He says his profession brings together the interests of his father, who was head of banking at SG Warburg, and his mother, a psychoanalyst.
'The City is a bit about numbers and a bit about psychology. The psychology is very important because different fund managers have their own ways of looking at the world. They have different approaches to risk and reward. It is a key part of investing.
'A fund manager has to have confidence in their own abilities because it is a constant battle with the markets, but at the same time, if you are overly arrogant you will make mistakes.
'It is about knowing thyself.
Really good fund managers know their own strengths and weaknesses and adjust accordingly.
'They also have an insatiable curiosity. One of ours reads the New Scientist, which is a great source of new ideas.' BONHAM Carter, a youthful 46, was a boarder at Harrow before reading economics and politics at Manchester University. He began his career as an admin assistant at Schroders.
'I was interested in corporate finance because of all the deals.
But they suggested I train in asset management, which I found fascinating, which is good because I have a relatively low attention span. In the short run the market is a voting machine - it is about fear and greed. But in the longer term it is a weighing machine, which is an effective mechanism for allocating capital.' From Schroders, he moved to Electra Investment Trust and in 1994 joined Jupiter as a director and manager of the UK growth fund. In 2000 he became joint chief executive with Jonathan Carey and still runs the undervalued assets fund.
'The characteristic of a good fund manager is to be obsessed about markets - and your investment brain doesn't get switched on at 8.30 and switched off at six at night. You might be bicycling into work when you get a good idea, or listening to Mozart. One is always thinking about investment.' If he did not invest in Jupiter, where would he put his own money? 'I can't nominate a competitor! In the longer term, emerging markets are intriguing and environmental businesses are very interesting in an era of high oil prices.'
The worst part of being a fund manager must be when your investment bets go against you, I suggest.
'My worst period of underperformance was when I was running the Jupiter UK growth fund,' Bonham Carter says. 'I was very underweight in tech stocks.
Even the great fund managers have periods of underperformance - that is natural.
'The question is whether it is natural underperformance or whether they have lost it.' So do fund managers have an expiry date? 'I think anyone with a career has an expiry date, it is just not always clear what it is. Partly it comes down to personal motivation and energy, which is more important than age. Experience is undervalued. Some of our fund managers are a certain age but they get up in the morning and are still interested.' Bonham Carter is not so sceptical about the revival in dotcom shares. 'It is a bit different this time because a lot of the flaky and marginal players have been taken out. The internet is clearly here to stay,' he says.
He believes there may be more juice in the rally we have seen in the stock market since the dotcom boom and bust.
'The average mourning period when a close relative dies is six or seven years. Some aspects of that apply to stock-market investment.
People go through feelings of loss, regret and the rest of it, and they are still feeling battered by the bear market.
'We have had three years of recovery, but the Footsie is still off its highs. We have had a strong run but many shares are still attractive. We have noticed a big increase in retail investors coming back.' He is not overly troubled by the number of companies disappearing from the UK stock market into private equity hands or being swallowed by foreign bidders.
'You will see a private equity bid for a FTSE 100 company at some point. Is it a problem? In some sectors there is a scarcity - in building materials for example, the last big quoted company now is Hanson and there are bid rumours about that. If private investors want access to private equity, they can buy investment trusts, so they are not completely excluded, but it is an issue.
'The overseas bids are a sign of the strength of the London market and the fact it is relatively open.' There has recently been controversy over unit trust groups increasing their charges, but Bonham Carter is adamant that Jupiter is not guilty.
'We do not set out to be the cheapest but we do set out to deliver performance and value for money. One of the underrated forces in the world is inertia.
People talk about charges but what do they do? Nothing. If people were more demanding then the City would respond.' Since Duffield defected, Jupiter has done pretty well. It manages [pounds sterling]11bn of assets for retail customers, double the amount it had in 2000. In total, it runs [pounds sterling]14bn of money. Last year was its best for gross unit-trust sales, which rose to [pounds sterling]1.9bn from [pounds sterling]1.16bn in 2004.
Bonham Carter wants to expand into other areas such as pensions, hedge funds and investing for big City institutions. On the subject of growing by taking over other firms, he is circumspect.
'If you look at the great fund managers over time, they tend to be the ones that have built organically, not through acquisition.
'It is a people business and if you have to integrate different cultures it can be very difficult. I always think Jupiter is in the business of making good quality wine over a long time. We want to be Bordeaux rather than Beaujolais.'
FACT FILE
EDWARD BONHAM CARTER, JOINT CHIEF EXECUTIVE, JUPITER ASSET MANAGEMENT FAMILY: Wife Victoria is a former television presenter. Three children - Harry, nine, Maud, six, and Tobias, two.
LIVES: Barnes, South-West London.
EDUCATION: Harrow and Manchester University.
VEHICLE: Company car is a Mercedes A-class, but cycles into work.
HOBBIES: Sleeping and reading, currently Adam Nicholson's book on Trafalgar, Seize the Fire.
PERSONAL INVESTMENTS: Shares in Jupiter.
WHO IS BETTER LOOKING, YOU OR HELENA? 'Your readers will have to be the judge.
They will have to write in, but I don't have full stage makeup on.'
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