Harrington previously managed the £91 million ($144 million) Jupiter Undervalued Assets Fund, the Fund of Investment Trusts and the Jupiter Monthly Fund.

The performance of Harrington has been criticised. Lee Robertson, chief executive of boutique wealth management firm Investment Quorum, said: “Patrick Harrington has left Jupiter following a period of poor performance, on both his ‘Undervalued Assets’ and ‘Income’ fund mandates. Despite the appointment of a new manager, we will not be supporting the Jupiter Undervalued Assets Fund at this time."

Adrian Lowcock, senior investment advisor at Bestinvest, an independent financial advisor, said the "undervalued" fund had suffered from relatively weak performance over the past few years. Jupiter, when asked about these comments by this publication, declined to comment.

Elaborating on the changes to the funds' managers, Jupiter said that Steve Davies, who joined the firm in 2007 and is deputy manager of the Jupiter UK Growth Fund, assumes leadership of the Jupiter Undervalued Asset Fund following Harrington's departure alongside lead manager Ian Mcveigh.

Meanwhile, Richard Curling will co-manage the Fund of Investment Trusts and the Jupiter Monthly Fund with Arial Bezalel, who also manages the Jupiter Strategic Bond Fund.

Prior to joining Jupiter, Davies spent 14 years as an analyst at Numis Securities.

In other recent news, the firm boosted its assets under management by £500 million (approximately $773 million) to £2.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a trading statement ahead of the firm's financial results earlier this month.

Jupiter also reported £1.73 billion in private client funds, up from £1.68 billion at the end of September last year.

Separately, however, in December the firm decided to close its Bermuda office this year owing to a reduction in the scale of its hedge funds business.