When comparing performance across the investment trust sector as a whole, Jupiter European Opportunities (JEO) has delivered a consistently strong performance, stumbling only twice - in 2008 and 2016; both highly unusual years for reasons which are well known. Since 2000, Alexander Darwall has invested JEO’s capital in the same manner – by investing in what he sees as exceptional companies, expected to grow irrespective of the wider economic environment or stock market cycles. He sets great store by company meetings with management, trying to identify the twin pillars of “the right company” and “the right management” which underpin his disciplined approach to stock selection. Having identified these companies, he looks to identify long-term structural trends which will help the company grow. Alexander has a high degree of flexibility to manage the portfolio as he sees fit. For example, the portfolio concentration is much greater than one would normally find with the top ten holdings representing 75% of NAV. Additionally, he has full latitude to invest outside of continental European listed companies, the requirement only being that most companies held will undertake a substantial proportion of their business activities within Europe. Currently c. 25% of assets are invested in UK listed companies. In the managers view, their investee companies are increasingly global, but are unified by their common roots as being driven by European expertise. Compared to the AIC Europe peer group, JEO has been the best performer over one, three, five and 10 years. Since 2001 Alexander has only underperformed the benchmark (FTSE World Europe Ex-UK Index) in two years – 2008 and 2016. The compounding effect of Alexander’s outperformance has meant that the trust has delivered a strong result for shareholders. Over the last ten years the trust has delivered NAV total returns of 440% against a benchmark return of 135%, and a return from the average IA European (inc. UK) fund of 148%. Relative to peers, according to Morningstar’s “style” analysis, JEO has the purest “growth” portfolio of the investment trust peer group. It is also the only trust which has any significant exposure to UK stocks, and whilst over the long run the NAV has similar volatility to that of its peers, over the past three years it has been the most volatile. Gearing has over the long term, averaged around 10% according to the Morningstar. Gearing was ramped up quite significantly in 2016, when the manager saw new opportunities emerging in the wake of Brexit, and started 2017 at 17%. The managers use gearing in a highly tactical fashion, however, and the level of gearing fluctuates significantly - the current level of gearing is in the region of 3%. JEO has consistently traded at a premium rating to the rest of the investment trust peer group and has been trading on a premium of c.3% in recent times.