ROBERT Baltzer, who runs Baillie Gifford's High-Yield Bond and Investment Grade Long Bond funds, has climbed to first position in The Herald's monthly table of top-performing asset managers working for Scottish investment houses, even though his UK-wide ranking dipped.

Mr Baltzer unseated Chris Bowie, manager of Ignis's Corporate Bond Fund, at the head of the Scottish top flight when the latest performance figures for the three years to July 31 were tallied by financial publisher Citywire.

He made top spot even though his UK-wide ranking dipped from 12th to 16th. Mr Bowie's UK-wide position slipped from seventh to 24th.

Mr Baltzer, who was in top position in the Scottish top flight earlier this year, graduated as a Master of Mathematics from Durham University in 2001.

He joined Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford in the same year, and is now an investment manager in the credit team.

The Citywire rankings are based on risk-adjusted performance against relevant benchmarks.

Fewer than one-fifth of fund managers in the UK qualify for one of the 274 Citywire ratings.

The Herald-Citywire survey covers fund managers working for investment houses with a significant presence in Scotland.

Baillie Gifford had 12 fund managers in the Scottish top flight when the latest figures were compiled, unchanged from the previous month.

Aberdeen Asset Management had six fund managers in the Scottish top table, also unchanged from the previous month, and was thus second again to Baillie Gifford on this score.

First State Investments was also steady, with five managers in the top table north of the Border.

Standard Life Investments joined it in third-equal spot with five managers in the Scottish top table, as a result of the promotions of Will James, who manages its European Equity Income fund, Jaime Ramos-Martin, who runs its European Equity Growth fund, and Thomas Moore, who manages its UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund.

SLI's Harry Nimmo, who has clocked up lengthy spells in the past at the head of the Scottish top flight, climbed the table with an improvement in his UK-wide ranking from 150th to 98th.

Mr Nimmo runs funds including the Standard Life Global Smaller Companies and UK Smaller Companies vehicles.

Glasgow-based Ignis achieved three fund manager promotions into the Scottish top flight when the latest performance figures were calculated.

Ian Ormiston, who runs Ignis's European Growth and European Smaller Companies funds, made it into the Scottish top flight with an improvement in his UK-wide ranking from 341st to 241st.

David Clark, who manages Ignis's Smaller Companies fund, enjoyed an improvement in his UK-wide ranking from 308th to 255th.

This took Mr Clark, who has in the past occupied first position in the Scottish table, back into the top flight.

Fellow former Scottish top flight leader Barry Norris, who runs the Ignis Argonaut European Alpha and Ignis International Argonaut Pan-European Alpha funds, was also promoted with an improvement in his UK-wide position from 293rd to 271st.

Following these promotions, Ignis has four Citywire-rated managers.

Kames Capital, SVM and Artemis each have three. Franklin Templeton and Scottish Widows Investment Partnership have two Citywire-rated managers apiece.