Mikhail Zverev will join Aviva Investors as head of global equities in October, while Alistair Way will become head of emerging market equities. Six further colleagues will join as portfolio managers.
Chelsea Financial Services managing director Darius McDermott said the eight hires “shows a lot of ambition” for Aviva Investors’ equities proposition.
Since joining Aviva Investors from SLI in 2013, Munro (pictured) has launched the £5.6bn Aviva Investors Multi-Strategy (Aims) Target Return and £1.9bn Target Income funds to £17.9bn rival SLI Gars, which he helped architect, McDermott said. Those have sold well and the latest round of hires builds on that work, he said.
“Euan Munro has gone there to turn that business around as CEO,” he said.
In a press release announcing the hires, Munro said expanding the equities division of the business was a strategic priority for Aviva Investors. The company website lists income, small cap and emerging markets as its areas of expertise in the equities space.
As the subsidiary of an insurance giant, Aviva Investors has a lot of internal money to seed fund launches, one source told Portfolio Adviser.
Exodus
There is no doubt this is a large crop of hires, said Tilney managing director Jason Hollands.
Henry Flockhart and Adam McInally will join as UK equity portfolio managers next week. Like Zverev and Way, they will report into equities chief investment officer David Cummings, also Standard Life Investments alumni. Cummings joined in January after being overlooked for the role of head of equities at Aberdeen Standard.
Jaime Ramos Martin and Ross Mathison will join as global equities portfolio managers, reporting to Zverev, along with Stephanie Niven, who joins from Tesco Pensions Investment, the only hire from the batch not part of the Aberdeen Standard raid.
Jonathan Toub and Will Malcom join the emerging markets team reporting to Way.
While the hiring spree is big news for Aviva Investors, according to Hollands, he said none of the managers are household names.
McDermott said Zverev is a good hire, but he was unfamiliar with Way or the six portfolio managers that had been hired.
Portfolio Adviser understands key portfolio managers at Aberdeen Standard would have been locked in with long-term incentive plans and deferred bonuses to ensure they did not exit quickly after the merger.
Inevitable
Aberdeen Standard Investments has played down the mass exit from its equities team.
A spokesperson said they have more than 150 equity investment professionals globally.
“Inevitably when you integrate two investment teams there will be some departures,” the spokesperson said. They added that they were glad the exiting employees had been able to find new roles in Edinburgh.
The £11bn merger completed in August 2017 creating a company with 50 offices spread across the globe with assets under management of £670bn.
Hollands did not think the exodus was a big deal for Aberdeen Standard, stating a post-merger “shake-out” was inevitable as staff move on or take redundancy when they don’t get the roles they wanted.
Zverev was head of global equities at SLI, but lost out on that role to Stephen Docherty following the merger, while Dominic Byrne is deputy head of global equities.
Way had likewise missed out on becoming head of emerging market equities at Aberdeen Standard Investments, despite holding that role at SLI. Devan Kaloo instead landed the appointment.
McDermott agreed a lot of people were available to be poached at Aberdeen Standard.
“Had Mikhail been offered head of global equities at the merged group I’d guess he’d still be there,” he said.
Last week, Nucleus, another Edinburgh-based business, nabbed Valerie Rogerson from Standard Life to head its client relations team.
In June, Legal & General Investment Management poached David Hoantee Peng from Aberdeen Standard for a newly-created role in its Asia team heading up the firm’s Asia Pacific ex Japan team.
