Saracen Fund Managers has hired former SVM Asset Management fund manager and analyst Alasdair Birch as an investment director on its global and UK equity strategies as it starts to expand its product range under Assetco’s guidance.
Birch will be responsible for equity analysis and research, assisting with the £106m Saracen Global Income and Growth fund and the £17m Saracen UK Alpha fund.
He will also support the team to find high-quality companies that trade at low valuations as per Saracen’s “quality but not at any price” investment philosophy.
Birch joins from SVM Asset Management where he worked as a deputy fund manager and investment analysis. He worked on the SVM Continental Europe fund, using an all-cap concentrated and bottom-up approach.
Graham Campbell, CEO and fund manager at Saracen, said Birch’s appointment forms part of Saracen’s “ambitious plans” to strengthen the investment team, as well as broaden its client base and product range.
In May Saracen was acquired by Martin Gilbert’s consolidator Assetco for £2.75m, a move which commentators said would help the ailing Edinburgh-based boutique live up to its full potential. At the time, Assetco said it would grow Saracen “through marketing its existing funds and over time broadening its product range to continue to meet the needs of customers”.
Commenting on his appointment Birch said: “I’m excited to be joining Saracen’s experienced and highly regarded team. With Assetco’s recent acquisition of Saracen now complete I am very much looking forward to being part of this next exciting chapter in Saracen’s story.”
See also: Assetco lands buy rating from Numis
