Well, good morning, nd welcome to Jupiter's third quarter trading update. I'm Matt Beesley, Jupiter's Chief Executive Officer. I'm joined today by Wayne Mepham, our CFO. I joined Jupiter in January this year as Chief Investment Officer and took over as CEO on the first of October. In both cases, I did so because I believe Jupiter is a fantastic business with strong foundations and huge potential for growth. Of course, we have to acknowledge the current very challenging market environment. As an asset manager with a large presence in the U.K., we can't escape this turbulence. But our people are working hard to deliver for clients and to demonstrate the value of active management during these more volatile periods. We face our own challenges.
As CEO, I'll be seeking to address those issues, but all the while knowing that we have strong foundations that are gonna help us drive growth as we look forward. As you know, we'd not normally provide more than a brief trading update at Q3, but given I so recently assumed the role, I wanted to take the opportunity to speak to you all and to lay out some of my initial thoughts on the industry and on our business, and on actions we might take to deliver Jupiter's growth, as we look forward. What will we cover this morning? As well as sharing my core beliefs on our industry and Jupiter's place in it, we will run through the immediate priorities for change, both for me and my senior leadership team.
We will review our existing strategy and some options for how we might develop that further. Finally, we'll walk through our view on capital allocation and detail how and when we'll be returning excess capital to our shareholders. Having been in the role for less than three weeks, you won't be surprised to hear that I do not yet have all of the answers to share with you today. Indeed, I might think that you'd be concerned if I claimed to do so after such a short period. As you would expect, Wayne and I will return to provide more details to the market in February when we present our full year results.
What I will share with you all today are some of the details of things we have done already, some of the things that we are in the process of doing, and explore some other opportunities that we might consider as we look forward. We will, of course, also have the opportunity to ask questions which you can send via the webcast, which will be read out at the end. Before all of that, I want to hand over to Wayne, who will walk you through our flows for the last three months.
Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Our release this morning sets out the group's flows and market performance in Q3 this year. Although our flows were still negative, it is pleasing to be able to report an improved picture compared with earlier in the year. Against a difficult market backdrop across the year, gross flows in Q3 were up from the previous quarter at GBP 3.8 billion, which at 8% represents the highest quarterly percentage of the period's opening AUM since Q1 2021. So far, we've attracted just under GBP 11 billion of gross flows for the year. That's strong performance in a very challenging market. You can see the big tick-up was from institutional clients, which reached nearly GBP 1 billion. We've talked a lot about the opportunity here and some of the groundwork we've invested behind.
This is the largest gross inflow for Jupiter that is funded from institutional clients in any quarter and contributes to a strong year in both gross and net flows so far. There are clearly strong signs that we have made strides in repositioning the group with greater weighting from this client base. The funding this quarter was driven by one significant mandate into a U.K. equity strategy from a sovereign wealth fund, and this mandate led to positive institutional net flows of over GBP half a billion. While there continued to be retail outflows, they were at much reduced levels compared with the first two quarters of the year at GBP 1.1 billion. These retail net outflows were in similar areas to previous quarters. There were net redemptions from U.K. and European equities.
Dynamic bonds still saw outflows, but these were at lower levels than the previous two quarters, and these were partially offset by net inflows into the strategic absolute return bond fund, as well as multi-asset strategies. Combined, total net outflows were just under GBP 600 million for the quarter. With these flows and challenging market conditions leading to negative market movements of GBP 800 million, AUM at the end of the quarter was GBP 47.4 billion. It certainly continues to be a challenging market environment, at least in the short term, but that growing institutional interest is really encouraging. Institutional client investment and indeed disinvestments are always lumpy in nature and hard to predict. I'm pleased to be able to report that the positive momentum we witnessed in Q3 has continued into Q4.
In the first week of October alone, we've seen some meaningful institutional fundings equivalent to an excess of half a billion pounds. For us, it's really encouraging that new and existing clients continue to see us as well-placed to solve their needs. That suggests we're doing many of the right things in this important area of potential growth for Jupiter.
I'd now like to spend a little time sharing with you my thoughts about our industry, why I see Jupiter as being well-placed, and some of the areas that I'm thinking about to drive long-term growth. Firstly, and while this is a clear and obvious statement for everyone at Jupiter, I wanted to state that I firmly and passionately believe in the value of active management. We know that passives have a role to play. Indeed, they do for many of our clients. But it would be easy to forget that this is an industry that is still dominated by active managers. Active AUM accounts for 78% of industry assets and 93% of revenues. From 2005 to the end of last year, assets under management in actively managed products have grown 9% per annum. This is still a growing industry.
For a high conviction manager like Jupiter, there's a significant market to aim for here and a great opportunity. While the active management industry is growing, we all know that it is not without its challenges, and these challenges have been exacerbated by the current enormously volatile macro and economic backdrop. It's vital that we are relentless in our pursuit of efficiency and scalability across our entire business. There are pressures on the top line, both from ongoing fee pressures and from falling markets impacting our revenues. There are pressures too on the cost side. Operational complexity has increased year on year and regulatory focus continues unabated. There are opportunities here too. If we can stay focused on building an efficient model and driving scalability, this could be key in freeing up capacity within the business to drive growth further forward.
Of course, the key focus for everyone at Jupiter is on our clients. It is their money that we are being entrusted with, and we take that responsibility very seriously. Their needs are changing. They are becoming more complex, and our relationships with them are now much more multifaceted than ever before, which is a great opportunity for us to build deeper, longer-lasting relationships. Delivering investment performance is of course, absolutely key for an active manager, but that is no longer enough. Clients now want a broader, deeper relationship or are looking for outcomes that are not solely based on performance versus a benchmark or a peer group. Indeed, the levels of client service that they expect have grown enormously over recent years.
Many of what might be described as retail clients are today demanding a level of service and reporting that we previously would have been much more used to seeing for traditional institutional clients. Product trends are shifting too, away from single country and regional products towards more global and more thematic styles. Concurrently, the lines between public and private companies continues to blur, and our clients are increasingly agnostic as to where they invest. One other key aspect of this change in client demand has been the growth in sustainability-focused products. Now forecasts vary here, but we could see almost $100 trillion of assets in ESG-mandated products by 2025, which would account for almost 60% of global AUM.
Importantly, this is not just about specifically labeled products, but also the broader area of active engagement with companies on ESG issues, which is now a key part of active management. Jupiter does much of this well already, and I'll come on to talk about this later on. Importantly, all four of these trends present opportunities for Jupiter. If we adapt and evolve our business in the right way, each can help us drive future growth. Where does Jupiter fit into this industry and where do we need to build from here? Well, the first point to notice is that Jupiter is already an excellent business with world-class talent. We've done a lot already and have lots of plans as to how we can further develop the strategy.
We must not forget, we can only do this because of the strong foundations and success stories across the group. Our purpose is high-conviction investment excellence, and we have some incredibly talented investment managers and analysts. Notwithstanding some of the changes we've made, we have a diversified and differentiated product set. Our core business has always been in the core U.K. retail space, which historically has been the growth driver behind Jupiter's success. We know there are some challenges here, and we're focused on how we can offset these. As Wayne Mepham has already made clear, we're seeing growth with institutional clients. We've also built some strong business overseas, and we're seeing external recognition for some of the fantastic work we've done across the firm with sustainability. Overall, I think we're doing a lot of the right things already.
There are some things, there's some more things that we can do to really drive our growth faster. Firstly, we've undergone a process to rationalize our fund range, to reduce complexity and to make sure we're really focused on what we're good at. We started the process of simplifying our structure, reducing our headcount, and reviewing our operational footprint as we look to build an increasingly efficient and scalable model. We're undergoing a review of our existing strategy, both for our core business and our three-pillared strategic growth priorities. Together, we need to decide that these are the right areas to focus on, whether we'll be moving quickly enough, and whether they'll be sufficient given our growth ambitions.
On the first of these, it was clear to me on joining this firm that, put simply, we had too many funds, or crucially, too many subscale, non-differentiated funds that were diluting our active proposition. There were also a number of areas where we had overlapping capabilities or in areas of limited client demand. Across the whole product set, 46% of our mutual funds have less than GBP 100 million of assets. This was clearly a fund range in need of some rationalization. We've worked hard to assess where we can simplify this range and reduce complexity. Across closures, mergers, and repositionings, almost a third of the fund range has been impacted.
Now some of these changes reflect ongoing needs to evolve the structure and positioning of certain products, but when we're done, importantly, there'll be around 25% fewer funds. This has very much been focused on the subscale end of the range. More than 80% of the funds involved are below GBP 100 million, but only 4% of overall group AUM has been impacted. It's important for you to know that with a few exceptions, all clients that have been impacted by these changes are largely already aware of them. It's worth noting, however, that this is an ongoing continuous process despite the discrete nature of these changes. We will continually review our product range, always keen with a focus on these subscale funds.
Ultimately, this will lead us to have a much more focused product range on areas of true client need, with our clients in turn, much more readily able to identify where we have capabilities that match up with those needs. I've already said that the pursuit of efficiency must be a constant focus for us, and it was clear to me from very early on that we needed to review our cost base. I saw a business with the potential to be much more responsive and quick to act for the benefit of all stakeholders, and importantly, an opportunity to unlock that potential.
Of course, at the same time, I've been mindful of the need to manage risk for our business and for our clients and to protect areas of growth that I've already committed to and see as a longer term, part of a longer term of our strategy. There are areas where I observed we could actually realize potential by being more streamlined, and that will also align us better to the size of business that we have today. It's important to me and the board that we did not wait. Wayne and I, along with the rest of the leadership team, therefore, undertook a review of our entire operating model, and that led to the restructuring program, which, when it is complete, will have reduced our planned headcount by around 15%. I've also changed our governance structures to support good but faster decision-making.
I have a smaller executive group which I fully expect will drive more nimble and more decisive action. We're now supported by a broader senior management team with all the right experience in the room to ensure effective and disciplined execution of our plans. Although we'll always remain focused on efficiency, this restructuring is a one-time event, which I don't foresee having to do again in the medium term. Our review covered both the organizational structure but also other costs, and whether there was an appropriate allocation of resources across the business. Of course, this is an area that I've spoken about before, and I said in July that I would do more. Matt and I have done just that.
Our focus was to get the right balance with investment for growth in targeted areas, but also recognizing the market conditions and the size of our business today. Value for money will always be a focus for us. We reviewed all our supplier relationships across the whole business and challenged those costs, particularly in areas of discretionary spend. Overall, it's only through driving these efficiencies and making sure that our platform continues to be scalable, that we create the capacity for future growth opportunities and appropriate returns of capital to shareholders. The savings we've achieved here will really come through in 2023. I can't give final figures or guidance yet as our budget process is not complete, and we're still evaluating inflationary impacts. I can say that through these savings, next year's costs will be around GBP 20 million lower than they would otherwise have been.
Equally split between fixed staff and non-compensation cost savings. For this year, as you'd expect, we had some restructuring costs. Those are one-off for 2022, but I'll report them within underlying profits. I expect these costs will push up our compensation ratio for this year by two percentage points to 40% excluding performance fees. I don't see any changes to my previous guidance for 2022 on the non-compensation side, which remains at about GBP 117 million for the year as a whole. The last of my media priorities has been to review our existing strategy. A key part of Jupiter's growth historically has been through our core business of U.K. retail. Indeed, this is what Jupiter is still known for to many in the market. We've had lots of success here. Jupiter is still the number one active-only listed player in this space.
We continue to see strong gross flows with over GBP 4.5 billion so far this year. U.K. retail still accounts for two-thirds of AUM. We also know that it has not always been an easy space to operate in, and we suffered outflows in recent years. Looking forward, our key focus is on stabilizing these flows, building deeper relationships with our clients, and continuing to evolve our product range to meet our client needs. To move on to the strategic growth priorities that you've heard Jupiter discuss over recent years. Firstly, with institutional. Overall, I think we are doing a lot of the right things already. I have no doubt that our strategy of diversifying into this channel is the right one. I have an institutional background myself as an investment manager, and I know very well the value of longer-term stickier client assets.
There's a huge market out there. More than three-quarters of U.K. assets are from institutional clients, and Jupiter's now being recognized as a respected player in this space. Our buy ratings from consultants are up to 17, and the AUM has increased to 11% of group assets. As Wayne mentioned, we've generated over half a billion GBP of net inflows for the quarter, and we've seen this momentum continue into the first few weeks of October with some additional fundings currently scheduled for the next few weeks reflective of our strong and growing pipeline. Now, to be clear, I wouldn't want you to extrapolate that out for the rest of the quarter or indeed into next year, but we are seeing record levels of RFPs and record levels of incoming client engagements, all of which is building confidence in our late-stage pipeline.
We will continue investing behind this success, which is truly global in nature and is not just coming from clients in the U.K. When we consider that 94% of global AUM is from outside of the U.K., it's clear that there's also a material opportunity to diversify our business on a geographical basis. We've had success from our overseas offices. There are positive net flows in 2020 and 2021, and the large institutional mandates I've referenced are from international clients. We have a strong business outside of our home market of the U.K., but I think we have the opportunity to do better here. Not all of our international presences are at scale yet, and we will look to build on that and to prioritize investment to increase levels of profitability in some of those key markets.
Now, to be clear, I do not mean that we'll be looking to close any of our offices, but rather we have an opportunity for a targeted allocation of some of our resources to really push that growth forward. The final part of our existing strategy is that of sustainability. I said earlier that I'm a passionate supporter of this, and I believe that in the value that active management brings, whether through active engagement with our investing companies or through sustainability label products. Jupiter is well progressed in this space and starting to be recognized externally as such. We were once again awarded as the signatory of the U.K. Stewardship Code here in the U.K. Our net zero ambitions are some of the most ambitious in the industry, given our asset mix, and we have one of the best Sustainalytics ratings across our wider peer group.
There is, of course, much more we can do here, but it's absolutely right that we're pushing ahead, focusing on areas where Jupiter has the experience and expertise to be positioned as a leader. Hopefully it's clear that I believe our existing strategy is largely the right one, and everything we're doing is absolutely necessary. The question for us now to consider, though, is whether that is sufficient, whether the growth that we have, the growth we continue to see across these areas will be enough, and whether we have the opportunity to explore new areas to drive that growth further and faster. I said earlier that I would talk you through what we've already done and what we're in the process of doing, but I also said I would look at some of the things that we might do.
Now, not everything that's listed on this slide in front of you will be something that we will be ultimately pursuing, but all of these will be explored as we look to develop our strategy to push growth along faster. We talked earlier about how client product demands are changing, away from single country and regional products to more globally and thematically focused strategies. Now, this is one area that I can tell you is being developed. I'm excited to announce that we will be launching a range of thematic funds early in 2023, and we'll update you on our plans here in the new year. It's also observable that other asset classes are emerging and playing a more significant role in clients' portfolios today, notably as relates alternatives, real assets, property, and infrastructure.
Private assets have been a real area of interest in our industry for a number of years, and some of our peers have had success in this space. To attempt to grow this organically would likely be a challenge given the cost and the complexity involved, but it could be that we explore partnership structures and see what Jupiter could bring to such a relationship in terms of distribution or operational support. Away from the product side, we'll also be looking at whether there can be distribution relationships that might help us reach a new set of clients. We're looking at the medium of delivery itself, how and in what form will clients access our investment strategies. Active ETFs are one example that we could be exploring.
While we'll always remain focused on having an efficient and scalable operating model, use of an innovative technology could also play a role here too. After less than three weeks as chief executive, I cannot definitively tell you which of these we will pursue, but I can say that our senior leadership team are reviewing all of these options as we seek to drive Jupiter forward. Before we go on to questions, I'll update you on our approach to capital. In July, we declared an interim dividend of GBP 7.9 pence per share in line with last year. The board had previously committed to returning a minimum payout ratio of 70% over two years, which is through to the end of 2022. Today, we confirm that we intend to honor that commitment.
Given the share price today, my expectation is most of the remaining return will be in the form of a share buyback program. We will start this shortly, and I expect to be able to complete up to GBP 10 million this year. Of course, the board will reassess at the year end how much of the remaining amount to reach the minimum 70% level will be through a final dividend, and that means we will not be paying a final dividend for 2022 at the same level as last year. From next year and going forward, the ordinary dividend will be reset to 50% of pre-performance fee earnings, and we will no longer be set at a minimum of the prior year amount. Of course, removing the progressive part of our policy means the dividends can go up and down through the market cycle.
We've debated capital policies with some of our largest shareholders, and many agree that this type of allocation makes sense for a business like ours, where markets overall can be volatile. Our job is to deliver investment performance for our clients, and that will drive good, sustainable shareholder outcomes. That means there will always be factors outside of our control that will impact the profit outcome as we work to ensure that we meet those client expectations. This policy simply recognizes that. We know that this will, at times, leave us with surplus capital in excess of business needs, and we will continue to return this excess to shareholders on a periodic basis, just as we've done before.
We've laid out here our new capital allocation framework, which is just a little different to how I've presented it before. I think the most important point here is actually the one at the bottom of the slide, and that is capital returns must always be sustained by earnings each year. We all know that most organic investment for a business like ours goes through the income statement, so a decision on how much to invest for future growth in any given year will have a bearing on the ordinary dividend. That will always be out of profits achieved for that year.
We do not see any need for large scale inorganic investment, but Matt is rightly looking at all of the options available to the group, and that might include some smaller scale investment in targeted areas where we see suitably accretive opportunities. If that needed capital, it would obviously be considered before any additional returns to shareholders. Right now, we are comfortable that we are well-placed to balance what we've announced today, retaining flexibility for the future and maintaining an efficient balance sheet. Although we have announced share buybacks today, the right mechanism for additional distributions in the future will be based on specific circumstances at the time. To wrap up on capital, the key change here is that from 2023, our policy is based on ordinary dividends of 50% of underlying earnings per share, excluding performance fees.
We remain committed to paying additional returns at the right time and through an appropriate mechanism based on those specific circumstances. To briefly summarize, before we hand over to questions, we are in a growing industry, but one that clearly faces challenges, both cyclically in the short term, but also structurally as well. To succeed, it's critical that we relentlessly pursue efficiency and scalability across our business. We will always look to return excess capital to shareholders, but we will do it in a responsible, sustainable way. I'm truly excited about the opportunity at Jupiter. Many of the right foundations are in place. We have a world-class talent pool across the business and we're already seeing growth in some key areas. We are doing lots of the right things already. Some of the strategy will remain, some areas will evolve, and some areas will be new altogether.
Ultimately, if we're going to return to growth soon, we need to move faster and we might need to do more. With that, I'll hand over to questions which will be read out by Alex James, our Head of IR, as they come in. Over to you, Alex.
Thank you, Matt. First question is for Wayne, it's from Nicola at Exane. It asks, "Can we give any more information on the margin of institutional mandates that we referenced in Q3 and Q4?
I can't give you specific information on that. What I can say is that the revenue margins clearly are lower than we typically see from equivalent retail business. For us, the most important thing here is that the relationship it tends to be longer. The overall returns from an institutional mandate for us are at least equal to a retail relationship.
Thank you. Matt, there's a few questions on the fund rationalization program, which I've heard from a number of different people, including David at Numis and Arno at Exane and Isabella KBW. Firstly, how many of these funds have merged or closed or were launched in the last five years? Can you talk a bit more around sort of the product disciplines involved here?
Yes. I don't know the number offhand to answer that question directly. Look, a lot of what we have been addressing is a result of the bringing together of both the Merian range of products and the Jupiter range of products. Where we've had some overlapping products, it's because there was some existing capability in one of the two organizations, which now no longer makes sense, given that we are in one company. Look, inevitably, as part of the life cycle of product management, there will be products that are no longer relevant to clients. There'll be products where client needs have evolved and have changed, and there'll be some products that perhaps through poor performance or changing market conditions haven't got the scale that we expect of them.
There's a degree here of ongoing curation of our product shelf, which we've been catching up on. There's also been the rationalization that is inevitable when you've brought two fund ranges together. Hence my comment about there being obviously a substantial change to the product range in terms of the 25% that has been merged or closed as part of this process, but some ongoing change that is inevitable as part of appropriate new care and management of a product range.
Thanks, Matt. Relatedly, do you have a view on how much of the 4% of that AUM impacted will likely be retained? Whether you can talk a little more around the assets or client mix of the funds impacted.
To answer the last question first, there's no one particular theme here in terms of the asset mix. It's across our product range. If anything, there's a bigger leaning towards the equity range rather than the fixed income range. In terms of the attrition, look, it's too early to tell. Typically, we are looking to merge funds that are not dissimilar or have appropriate overlap in terms of their investment approach. Where we're closing funds then typically is because there isn't a suitable vehicle to merge a fund into to ensure we continue to meet a client need. Of course, those AUM are therefore typically lost. It's too early to be able to give you a number as it relates to that 4% of AUM that's been impacted.
Thank you. To wrap up for now on fund rationalization, given there's a number of funds, even after this, which will be still relatively small, do you think the program is too cautious to see if then more can be done?
It's an inevitable part, again, of that product range management process, that there will be small funds that have recently been launched, are still gathering and garnering a track record, or potentially are interesting funds with truly differentiated approach towards their asset class, that for various client reasons at a particular point in time, are not yet relevant to clients because that asset class might be out of favor. It'll always be inevitable that we will have some small funds, but we want to be more active in making sure we manage that product set ultimately, so it's clear what it is that we stand for at Jupiter. You know, we are an active manager and want our active proposition to be reflected in the product range that we offer to our clients.
Wayne, on the cost side and the 15% reduction in headcount, I've got a few questions coming in on that. Can we give any more color on that reduction, which functions are mostly affected, when the skew on cost per head? Can we assume therefore a 15% decline in staff costs?
Well, as I said, the reduction in staff costs compared to our previous expectations is GBP 10 million. So that's half of the GBP 20 million saving that I mentioned earlier on. We reviewed across the whole of the business, so there are adjustments to planned headcount added to actual headcounts in every part of our business. There is clearly a larger aspect in some of the supporter areas, but overall it covers all parts of the business.
Relatedly, on the cost side, can you confirm the cost reductions in 2023, the comp and non-comp savings will be equally split between the two? Also whether if we're looking at costs exclusively, variable comp, can you say anything about bridging full year 2022 to 2023, given there's many moving parts of cost savings, inflation, investment in new initiatives, et cetera?
Yeah. I mean, look, as I said, I mean, we've announced today the savings that we've achieved, but I am in the process of going through our budgets. You know, most of that is well progressed. The one aspect that I think you'd understandably expect me to say at this stage is the inflation impact, and particularly around fixed staff costs. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to give those numbers to date. We're still working through that. Clearly, when we get to the year end in February, I'll give more explanation how we've moved between the two years.
You also talked about those costing GBP 20 million lower than it otherwise would have been. Can you say what you were budgeting for those costs before these changes?
No. Look, I. Again, I think people have got their own expectations of 2023, so, yeah, I'm sure you can each of the analysts and shareholders out there can look at that and compare that GBP 20 million adjustment. Yeah, again, it wouldn't be right for me to give you data today on the forecast for next year, which obviously we'll be closer to telling you what that number is.
Thank you. Back to Matt. Question from Arun Melwani at Citi. We talked about some institutional funding. Are we seeing a shift in institutional funding environment here? The last few updates we've discussed around increasing levels of interest, incoming clients interest, RFPs, but we've been cautious on the actual timing and award of those mandates. Has that environment improved?
Well, I think the nature of the institutional channel is it is by definition somewhat lumpy. You know, it takes time to build relationships with key institutional clients, underlying consultants, and of course you need your investment capabilities to align with, you know, and line up with underlying client needs. It's very hard to predict when that's going to occur. What we can say from Jupiter's own particular perspective is that we're starting to see lots of that hard work over, you know, recent years starting to come to fruition. You know, we referenced the consultant buy rating number, which is increasing.
The conversations that I'm having as an incoming CEO with many of our institutional clients tells us all, gives us all confidence that we're starting to bear some of the fruit of the investment that we've made in building out that channel. I will say the market environment, while clearly tricky and challenging, and to some degree will, you know, make certain investors want to be a bit more cautious about how they invest. There will be some investors that see opportunities out there in the current market environment, and it could be that some more sophisticated institutional investors take advantage of those market dislocations, which might also work to our benefit.
Look, I think the progress that we talked about in Q3, the progress we've alluded to just in those first week or so of October all suggest that the investment that we've made and the focus we've put on this channel is starting to bear fruit. The payout profile, of course, is going to stay lumpy and hard to predict.
Wayne, on the capital surplus, you talked about wanting to maintain a healthy capital surplus. Can you quantify this? Also, how does tier two debt fit into that definition?
Yeah. I know, I think, a healthy surplus is always a very judgment, judgmental area in asset management. You know, we're very comfortable that we have a healthy surplus today. We'll continue to reassess that based on market conditions, I think linked to the way in which we're positioning the ordinary dividend now gives us much more comfort on managing that healthy surplus in the future, and indeed giving us the opportunity to make additional returns when we feel that surplus is in excess of our needs. Yeah, clearly the subordinated debt does form part of the overall capital surplus. It is a 10-year debt with an opportunity to repay after five years. So that's in two and a half years' time now, or broadly two and a half years' time.
That will obviously play a part in our assessment of how much capital we have in the business and how much we therefore return capital to shareholders in due course.
Thank you. Matt, just to jump back briefly to the fund rationalization program. Can you talk at all about any sort of AUM risk from front office departures linked to that or otherwise? Equally, given the process sort of now starting, you've mentioned a lot of the clients were aware of this. What have you had in the way of client feedback?
Okay, it is important to emphasize that most clients that are impacted by this rationalization program are aware of these changes. To some extent, if clients have wanted to react, they've had an opportunity to do so. I mean, clients ultimately come to Jupiter because they believe that we are a provider of differentiated, truly active product. To some extent, this rationalization program has been helping us sharpen that perception with our clients. We want our clients, when they see a product off the shelf from Jupiter, to know that it's an actively managed product. If we're doing it, if we're active and involved in a particular asset class, it's because we believe we can do so and add value in a differentiated way relative to other, you know, propositions that might be out there.
By removing this overlapping, in many cases non-scaled, but also in some cases non-differentiated product, if anything, it just sharpens that perception with our clients, and our clients recognize that. There's been a great deal of understanding of why we're doing this, and support for this program.
Still on the rationalization program, but to weigh the average fee margin of these funds involved, are they comparable to the group's average?
Yeah, I know, Matt may want to comment on this, but yeah, there's no significant impact on the margin coming out of these funds. I mean, as we talked about, it is 4% of the funds being affected, but the average margin is not dissimilar to the group as a whole.
That's right. Oh, this is for Wayne. On the fund rationalization and the other costs then, are there exceptional costs this year to take into account because of this?
No. As I've mentioned, there's the costs that are again given guidance to before are in July of saying that there are no further exceptional costs over and above those that I've previously reported, which is principally in relation to the amortization of intangible assets relative to the Merian acquisition.
Thank you. There's one final question on here at the moment, but we'll give other people a chance to type their questions through. For the moment, that final question would be from David at Numis. He has asked what kind of organic growth in terms of net flows and sort of ongoing AUM do you think the business can realistically achieve over the medium term, taking into account market drivers and the fundraising from that?
Because I think it's very hard to answer that question with certainty. Clearly, the market environment is gonna be a big driver there. Client appetite to invest is gonna be a big part of that. Of course, the individual oscillations in asset classes are gonna be a big driver there. Even before we start to think about the Jupiter overlay, which of course will relate to our investment capabilities and to some degree, the short as well as the long-term performance of those capabilities. By definition, as we move and are more successful in the institutional space, that brings added complexity in trying to predict that number, because, again, by definition, that is a channel where investments and disinvestments are more lumpy. It's really hard to answer that question.
What we're focused on at Jupiter is growing our business and growing each of the channels that we are operating in, that we recognize, of course, there'll be times when market conditions and client actions can make growth hard to deliver.
Just one more question to come in on, again, on the rationalization program. It's all for Wayne. Will this have any impact on the level of seed capital?
No, this doesn't impact our seed capital. We obviously manage our seed capital portfolio carefully. There is the potential to remove seed appropriately and reinvest. We've got an ability to invest up to GBP 200 million, which we announced earlier this year. There's always money coming in and out of those as we look at our overall investment.
Thank you. I think then if there's nothing further about to come through, I think those are all the questions.
Well, look, I just want to say thank you all for joining us on today's call. Thank you all for the questions that we received, as well. Look, I'm incredibly proud to be the new CEO at Jupiter. We're also extremely excited about the opportunities ahead. With Wayne, we look forward to updating you on our progress in the new year. Have a good rest of the day, everyone. This presentation has now ended.