THOMAS MOORE of Standard Life Investments has topped the Scottish fund manager league table for a fifth month in a row.

The 40-year-old was ranked 41st in the in the table of 4,017 managers Europe-wide with a Citywire rating, for three-year performance to the end of October.

That gave him top spot in The Herald’s Citywire table of best-performing fund managers in houses with a significant Scottish presence.

The manager of SLI’s £1 billion UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund has climbed back from 51st place the previous month, having hit 21st in the table to the end of August.

Mr Moore, 40, has a BA in economics and politics from Exeter University and began his career in 1998 at Schroders. He joined SLI in 2002 and the UK equities team in 2006, taking over the unconstrained fund in 2009.

His fund has about 50 per cent in financials and consumer services and 30 per cent in industrials and consumer goods.

Scottish-linked managers continued to perform better overall in the tougher market environment which took hold in the summer, with 15 AAA-rated managers overall.

SLI however had to be content with ninth and tenth places behind Mr Moore in the latest top 10, taken by Jacqueline Lowe and Iain McLeod, co-managers of the Dynamic Distribution fund, both ranked at 286 overall.

Behind Mr Moore in the top three places are Ben Russon, at 96 up from 119, who runs four Franklin UK equity funds, and Sashi Reddy, down from 87, manager of the Asia Pacific Sustainability and Indian Subcontinent funds at First State.

Next comes the highly consistent Audrey Ryan of Kames Capital, at 107 down from 101, whose funds include the UK Opportunities, Ethical Equity and Ethical Cautious Managed.

Top 10 regulars Colin Morton, co-manager of Mr Russon’s funds at Franklin, and Jacob de Tusch-Lec who runs the global income and monthly distribution products at Artemis, occupy fifth and sixth places.

Their respective colleagues at Franklin and Artemis Richard Bullas and Peter Saacke follow behind.

The other AAA-rated managers during this period were SLI’s Colette Conboy, Iain Wells and Douglas Scott at Kames, SVM Asset Management’s founders Colin McLean and Margaret Lawson, and Tim Steer the veteran manager of Artemis UK Growth who is handing the fund over to Ed Legget, Mr Moore’s former co-manager at SLI.

Among the 10 new entrants to the table is past table-topper and SLI small company manager Harry Nimmo, ranking 125 in the Scottish list and 3829 overall.

Franklin Templeton continues to lead the way with 25 listed managers, while SLI and Baillie Gifford both claim 18.

Artemis has 16, Aberdeen, Kames Capital and First State have 10.