JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has announced three fund manager changes across its Asia investment trusts.

The most high-profile is JPMorgan Indian (JII ) lead portfolio manager Ayaz Ebrahim who has stepped down to take up a new position as chief executive of JPMAM Singapore and South-East Asia.

Ebrahim (pictured below) leaves the £644m trust in the hands of Amit Mehta and Sandip Patodia, who have been joint portfolio managers since September 2022 when Ebrahim took the helm after the departure of former manager Rajendra Nair after 24 years with JPMAM.

The trust’s board said it ‘looks forward to continuing to work with Mehta and Patodia, and other members of the company’s investment management team to seek to deliver strong long-term returns to shareholders’.

The large-cap fund is the worst performer of the four London-listed India trusts over five years. Its 24.8% total shareholder return trails the 39.1% of its nearest rival Abrdn New India (ANII ) with both trading on wide discounts of 20% and 23%.

It also badly lags the mid-cap focused India Capital Growth (IGC ) and Ashoka India Equity (AIE ) which have shot ahead with respective returns of 77.4% and 151% and tighter discounts.

Departure from old Russia trust

Meanwhile, JPMorgan Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa (JEMA ) announced the departure of co-manager Pandora Omaset who was said to be ‘pursuing other opportunities’ outside the group.

Lead manager Oleg Biryulyov will continue to run the £34m former JPMorgan Russian Securities, which currently trades at a huge 160% premium to asset value after the group wrote down all the Russian holdings to zero following the invasion of Ukraine, and broadened its remit.

While the trust ascribes no value to its Russian holdings, it said earlier this year that ‘some Western institutions have been able to sell Russian stockholdings at a substantial discount to local exchange values where they are held through depository receipts in exchange for western currencies’, providing some hope for offloading the beleaguered investments.

Ozawa off Japan Small Cap

Lastly, Naohiro Ozawa has stepped down as co-manager of the £172m JPMorgan Japan Small Cap Growth & Income (JSGI ).

JPMAM provided no explanation for Ozawa’s move after nearly six years on the trust. He leaves the closed-end fund with co-managers Miyako Urabe and Xuming Tao.

There has been plenty of change in the management of JSGI over recent years, with lead manager Eiji Saito stepping down in 2022.

The growth portfolio has struggled recently as Japanese smaller companies remain out of favour despite the recovery in the country’s stock market after decades of deflation. It is the second-worst performer in its four-strong peer group, with the shares down 30% over three years, although that looks good against Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon (BGS ) whose shares have halved over the same period.

Both have been lapped by AVI Japan Opportunity (AJOT ) and Nippon Active Value (NAVF ) whose activist approaches have chimed well with Tokyo’s corporate governance reforms, returning 20% and 62% respectively over three years.