In a new twist to the on-going battle between Jupiter Asset Management and New Star, the two Jupiter-nominated directors of New Star Investment Trust have found themselves forced to side with their opponent John Duffield. Last week, Duffield beat off a Jupiter-inspired attempt to wind up the investment trust and split it into two parts - one pool of assets to be managed by New Star and the other by Jupiter. New Star currently manages the entire trust.

Shareholders, of whom the largest by far is Duffield, voted down a resolution requiring the directors to put forward proposals to wind up the trust. The shareholders divide into two groups - those still working for the Commerzbank-owned Jupiter and those who followed Duffield, the Jupiter founder, to New Star, his new fund management company. The trust was formed as a vehicle to invest the huge amounts of cash received by Duffield and his Jupiter colleagues when Commerzbank bought their minority interest last year.