Standard Life Investments has confirmed that Andrew Paisley is set to join as its small-company equities team run by Harry Nimmo.
Mr Paisley joins from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip), where headcount is being reduced following its sale by parent firm Lloyds Banking Group to Aberdeen Asset Management.
He will work as one of five investment directors in Standard Life Investments smaller companies team, and he will take over the group’s European Smaller companies funds.
These include the Standard Life Investments European Smaller Companies Sicav, which the group said has delivered top-quartile returns in the past three, four and five years and has gained 90.1 per cent since launch in September 2007. The fund was previously run by Ken Nicholson.
Mr Paisley was part of the global equities team at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip), co-managing the Swip UK Smaller Companies fund.
Before joining Swip in 2011, Mr Paisley spent five years working as a senior investment manager at Kempen Capital Management.
Harry Nimmo’s Standard Life Investments UK Smaller Companies was one of the best-performing funds in the IMA universe in the past decade, although its performance has failed to live up to past form more recently.
It was included in the most recent Bestinvest Spot the Dog list of underperforming funds after slipping to the bottom quartile of the IMA UK Smaller Companies sector in the past one and three years.
Standard Life Investments also offers a Global Smaller Companies fund, which was launched in 2012 and has Alan Rowsell as its lead manager.
The fund has outperformed the IMA Global sector since launch but has also suffered so far this year.
