EDINBURGH-based Scottish Widows Partnership has been named among the laggards in wealth manager Bestinvest's latest Spot the Dog report on the poorest-performing investment funds.

The house, which is to be swallowed by Aberdeen Asset Management after current owner Lloyds Banking Group agreed to offload it in a £550 million deal, is one of just three houses to have three funds on the list.

Bestinvest's report has identified those funds that have underperformed their markets in each of the last three years and that have also fallen by more than 10%.

Bestinvest managing director Jason Hollands said: "All funds and managers go through periods of difficult performance during their careers, so we are not saying investors should automatically switch out of these funds.

"However, if you hold any dogs, you certainly need to explore further whether you should continue to give it more time to recover or whether it may be better to move elsewhere."

The three SWIP funds, among 53 identified as "dogs" by Bestinvest, were SWIP UK Opportunities, Scottish Widows UK Select Growth and Scottish Widows Pacific Growth.

A spokeswoman said: "SWIP is committed to ­delivering excellent performance across all its funds, including those mentioned in this survey.

"These funds represent less than 0.5% of our total funds under management."

F&C, the fund manager with a large Edinburgh ­presence and Prudential's investment arm M&G were the only other houses to have three funds named as so-called "dogs" by Bestinvest.

Describing SWIP as a "serial offender" in running below-par funds, Bestinvest said in its report: "With SWIP being acquired by Aberdeen, perhaps this is the final farewell."

Scottish fund houses ­Artemis and Standard Life Investments were among a small elite of providers with no funds on the "dogs" list.