LONDON (Reuters) - British blue chip investment firm Schroders (>> Schroders plc) has poached a star manager from rival firm Jupiter, Philip Matthews, to replace its outgoing head of UK equities.

Schroders said on Wednesday Matthews would take over the 3.5 billion pound Schroders UK Alpha Plus fund from Richard Buxton, a high-profile fund manager who is leaving to join Old Mutual Global Investors (>> Old Mutual plc) in June.

At Jupiter (>> Jupiter Fund Management PLC), Matthews had been set to take over as lead manager of the High Income Fund in July from mentor Anthony Nutt, who is retiring.

Schroders also has recruited Alex Breese to manage its UK equity funds from Neptune, where he was manager of the UK Special Situations fund.

"They are two highly rated UK equity fund managers with excellent performance track records," Schroders' global equities head Peter Harrison said in a statement.

Both managers face an initial challenge of persuading investors to stay put in Schroders rather than follow Buxton to his new firm.

Buxton, who joined Schroders in 2001 to manage specialist UK equity portfolios, has been outspoken on several high-profile takeovers and issues such as the compensation of Xstrata (>> Xstrata PLC) executives as part of the merger with Glencore (>> Glencore International Plc).

(Reporting by Chris Vellacott; editing by Jane Baird)