Ignis equity managers are the casualties of SLI cull

High-profile managers such as UK equity income manager Graham Ashby are among the casualties, as SLI has sought to install its own managers on both the retail and institutional mandates it now owns following the Ignis acquisition.

Ignis’s equity managers, who ran more than £11bn in retail and institutional money, are now no longer required, according to SLI.

“There is no requirement for the Ignis equity team to migrate to Standard Life Investments given the level of investment expertise and experience that already exists within Standard Life Investments’ equity team,” a spokesperson for SLI said.

The company confirmed that Ignis managers had been replaced with SLI managers on 15 funds.

When the deal was announced in March, SLI put the emphasis on Ignis’s absolute return bond team as a reason for the acquisition.

The SLI managers were officially named on the 15 funds last week, with many being taken over by managers who run ‘unconstrained’ funds for the group, including the top-performing Mikhail Zverev.

Mr Ashby’s Ignis UK Equity Income fund has now been handed to Karen Robertson, who runs other SLI UK equity income funds.

Andrew Paisley, who was recently hired from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, will now handle the management of Ian Ormiston’s European Smaller Companies fund.

But Mr Ormiston’s other fund, the Ignis European Growth fund, has been taken over by Kay Eyre, who is currently co-manager on the SLI European Equity Growth fund.

David Cumming, head of equities at SLI, said: “Despite the fact that we are only eight weeks into what will be an 18 to 24-month programme, the integration of Ignis is on schedule and progressing extremely well.”

Ignis chief executive Chris Samuel left the firm on completion of the deal and has since been followed out the door by head of global distribution Claude Chene, chief investment officer Michiel Timmerman and bond fund star Chris Bowie.

Ignis’s equity managers are replaced in SLI shake-up