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JPMorgan American Investment Trust PLC on Wednesday said it has appointed Fidelity Asian Values PLC Chair Clare Brady to its board. The FTSE250-listed trust operates a high-conviction, ‘best ideas’ approach to investing in US-listed value and growth stocks. Brady will join as a non-executive director. Alongside being non-executive chair of Fidelity Asian Values, she is a non-executive director of CT Healthcare Trust PLC and M&G Group Ltd, having previously served on the board of Credit Suisse. Her career spans Barclays PLC, HSBC Holdings PLC, Deutsche Bank AG, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Bank of England. Alongside Brady, JPMorgan American has appointed chartered accountant Kevin Troup to its board. Troup is non-executive director of Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon PLC and Baring Fund Managers Ltd. His previous experience includes roles at European Assets Trust PLC and various pension scheme managers. JPMorgan American noted that Brady, Troup and persons closely associated with them do not own shares in the company. Their appointments follow ‘disappointing’ annual results for the US-focused investment firm, which last week reported that its total return had lagged its benchmark in 2025. JPMorgan American’s total return at fair value was 4.6% in 2025, compared with a 9.6% return for the S&P 500. This partly reflected depreciation of the dollar against the pound, JPMorgan American explained. The investment trust also argued that its ‘underperformance was very much the result of the company’s bias to high-quality, more reasonably valued growth and value stocks’. ‘In contrast the equity market was led by many lower quality and highly valued stocks and hence the portfolio lagging the index was unsurprising in the circumstances,’ JPMorgan American said. Chair Robert Talbut commented last week: ‘US equity indices reached record highs in 2025, and despite recent events remain close to this towards the end of the first quarter. This resilience gives good cause for optimism about the prospects for US companies, and the market, over the coming year and beyond.’ JPMorgan American shares rose 2.6% to 1,112.00 pence on Wednesday morning in London and are up 21% over the past year. Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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