Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's (Swip) former head of European equities Rory Hammerson is to join Edinburgh-based Kempen Capital Management.
Hammerson, former Citywire AAA-rated manager of the Swip Pan European Equity, Pan European SRI, and Pan-European Smaller Companies funds, is to take over the role from David Simon.
Kempen Capital Management (KCM) is a long-only investment boutique, which specialises in European equity portfolios. It represents a subsidiary of Netherlands-based merchant bank Kempen & Co, owned by Van Lanschot, which provides the operational infrastructure as well as client support.
KCM's UK arm currently manages around € 700 million in assets, some of which are managed in line with SRI criteria.
Kathleen Dewandeleer and Catie Wearmouth will co-manage the SWIP Pan-European Smaller Companies fund, which Dewandeleer has co-managed since January 2005. Meanwhile, Steven Maxwell, head of Swip's European Equities team, will be an interim manager on the Pan-European Equity and Pan-European SRI funds until a new manager is appointed.
Swip has experienced a raft of manager departures recently, including head of UK equities Robert Waugh, who was the fund manager on Swip's UK Equity and Absolute Return UK Equity funds, who resigned and Citywire understands he will be going to Royal Bank of Scotland.
In August four of SWIP's leading fixed income managers Gareth Quantrill, Stuart McMaster, Rod Davidson and Stuart Steven joined Alliance Trust.
Steven ran the Swip European Corporate Bond fund, Absolute Return Bond and Corporate Bond Plus funds, while McMaster managed the Swip Sicav High Alpha Euro Bond fund.
Quantrill was rated by Citywire in 30 separate months, while Steven achieve a rating on 22 occasions and was AAA rated in 15 months.
More recently, Swip hired former Aviva head of fixed income, Roger Webb.
Over the three years to the end of October, Hammerson posted a 1.9% loss with the Pan European Smaller Companies fund compared to a 0.9% rise by the HSBC Smaller European (Inc UK) Companies index.