Wassenaar – October 21, 2016 – The Juno Selection Fund, specialized in investments in listed European small- and mid-cap (family-owned) companies, has recuperated from the weak performance that was achieved in the beginning of the year. The performance now stands at a positive return of almost 3% to date, after achieving an increase of 10.6% in the third quarter. This implies that the Juno Selection Fund stays well ahead of the European index which lost 2% this year. Since inception in January 2008, almost nine years ago, the fund has achieved an average compound return of 14% per annum. Over the past five years, the fund has returned an average of 22% per annum. The Juno Selection Fund takes first place in the five-years rankings of Citywire out of a total of 156 funds investing in European small- and midcaps *.

 
The fund’s total value has increased by almost 40% over the first nine months of 2016 to €159.5 million***. This growth is partially a result of positive overall performance, but to a large extent stems from the steady inflow of new money into the fund, from both existing and new participants. Considering the continued strong developments at Juno’s portfolio companies, we remain positive about the future.
 
Frans Jurgens, director and founding partner of Juno: “The historical association investors used to make between fixed income securities and low risk, no longer holds. Bonds have in fact become high risk. Especially when we take into account that in their search for yield, investors are increasingly forced to choose higher risk loans of companies of lesser stature. Comparing the ‘risk-free’ alternative of bonds to the high quality companies that Juno invests in, we are convinced that they are clearly a better alternative.”  
 
Lennart Smits, director and founding partner of Juno: “Almost no debt, high profit margins, large free cash flows and 10-15% earnings growth year in, year out: those are the ingredients of the companies we invest in that keep us fully confident in a further increase of the fund’s value for the remainder of 2016, but especially also for the long term.

About Juno Investment Partners

Juno Investment Partners was established in 2007 as a fully independent fund manager and has an AIFM license (as referred to in Section 2:65 of the Wft), issued by the Dutch regulator AFM. Juno specializes in the selection of exceptional listed (family owned) companies in Europe. Companies that are able to achieve predictable and stable earnings growth year after year are considered for investment. The selection process focuses on the return on invested capital, a low debt ratio and free cash flows of a highly predictable nature. The analysts/portfolio managers compile a highly concentrated portfolio of approximately fifteen companies that they identify, analyze and visit regularly. Selected companies remain in the portfolio for a longer time period (usually more than five years). All analysts/portfolio managers have themselves invested in the Juno funds.

Juno offers three products: The Juno Selection Fund, which focuses on the selection of smaller and medium-sized listed companies, the Juno Continuation Fund for medium-sized companies and individual asset management using the same investment style, for larger clients through managed segregated accounts.

– The Juno Selection Fund was launched in 2008. This mutual fund invests in distinctive European small and medium-sized companies with an initial market capitalization of €250 million to €4 billion. In recent years, this investment style has resulted in above average investment returns for participants in the Juno Selection Fund. This fund has been hard closed for further (follow on) subscriptions since 2018.

– The same investment strategy is applied in the Juno Continuation Fund, which was launched on February 1, 2020. This fund focuses on unique, medium-sized European companies with a market value between €4 billion and €20 billion at the time of initial purchase. As is the case with the Selection Fund, the Continuation Fund also has a strong preference for investments in businesses that are family owned, or companies in which a family or management itself is also a shareholder.