Holden, who joins the group from Vestra Wealth, will take up his role likely in October.
In the interim Brook-Fox will manage both the UK Focus and Balanced portfolios. Since February Ignis’ CIO of Equities Mark Lovett has been running the Balanced portfolio after a restructure earlier in the year led to some departures.
While Brook-Fox has managed the UK Focus portfolio to varied success over recent years, it is understood his work on the group’s institutional funds has shown his style is well suited to the Balanced mandate. Meanwhile Ignis was looking to have one manager devoted to the Focus portfolio to add some consistency to its performance.
Lovett says: “Having worked with Mark at Morgan Grenfell I know what a talented fund manager he is and we look forward to benefitting from his experience and skill when he joins the UK team.”
As well as hiring Holden, Ignis has also added a UK equity analyst to the team, Bilal Raja.
The change in the portfolios marks another stage in the ongoing restructure at the group. Ignis is expected to make a further handful of appointments over the course of the summer, including some more fund managers.
