FORMER table-toppers including SVM Asset Management's Margaret Lawson and Neil Veitch and Audrey Ryan of Kames Capital are the big risers in The Herald's latest list of top-performing fund managers working for Scottish investment houses.

First State emerging markets specialist Jonathan Asante regained the top spot from Baillie Gifford's corporate bond investor Torcail Stewart when the performance figures for the three years to February 28 were compiled by Citywire.

However, the most striking change was the rise of UK equities managers up the rankings following months of domination by those running bond funds and Asian and emerging markets equities mandates.

Among those making large gains were Margaret Lawson, manager of the £63.4 million SVM UK Growth fund, Neil Veitch, manager of £86.2m SVM UK Opportunities fund, and Audrey Ryan, manager of the £38.7m Kames UK Opportunities fund.

Ms Lawson, who last headed the Scottish table in August 2010, shot up 63 places to 95th in the UK rankings. She rose from 29th spot in the Scottish table to 16th place.

Her portfolio contains Glasgow-based pumps giant Weir Group, which comprises 3.3% of the fund and in recent years has benefited from the com- modities boom and the growing shale oil and gas sector.

Colin McLean, her co-manager on the fund, last week tipped Weir as a potential target for takeover. Their colleague Mr Veitch reached 28th place in the Scottish table on re-entering the rankings in February.

His stewardship of SVM UK Opportunities, SVM World Equity and SVM All Europe SRI funds helped him to 155th place in the UK table.

Audrey Ryan, manager of the Kames UK Opportunities, Kames Ethical Equity and Kames Ethical Cautious Managed funds, secured 21st place in the Scottish table, up from 49th. Her UK standing improved from 263rd to 121st.

The best-placed UK equities manager was Lesley Duncan, manager of the £153m Standard Life Investments UK Ethical fund since 2004, who took sixth place, up from 12th.

Her UK-wide position improved from 91st to 66th.

One place behind was Douglas Brodie, the expert in molecular immunology who runs the £208.3m Baillie Gifford British Smaller Companies fund. Just ahead in both the Scottish and British rankings were several managers with emerging markets and bond specialisms.

Unchanged in third spot in the Scottish table was Devan Kaloo, manager of Aberdeen Emerging Markets Smaller Companies, Aberdeen Emerging Markets, Aberdeen European and Aberdeen Latin American Equity funds. His UK-wide placing dropped from 42nd to 62nd.

Phil Annen, also unchanged in fourth spot, runs Baillie Gifford's Active Index-Linked Gilt and Global Bond funds. His UK-wide standing fell from 54th to 63rd place.

Francis Seymour, manager of the McInroy & Wood Emerging Markets secured fifth spot after seeing his UK-wide rating improve from 96th to 65th. Mr Asante claimed the top spot after previously heading two months ago.

He has worked in the Edinburgh office of First State for the last eight years after moving from London-based fund manager Framlington.

He runs First State's Global Emerging Markets Leaders, Global Emerging Markets and First State Latin America funds. His UK-wide rating improved from 36th to 15th.

Torcail Stewart, manager of the Baillie Gifford Bond Fund, slipped to second place having headed the table last month.

The Herald-Citywire survey focuses on open-ended funds aimed at retail investors, and ranks the performance of those working for investment houses which have a significant presence in Scotland.

Fewer than one-fifth of fund managers in the UK qualify for one of the 338 Citywire ratings. Rankings are based on three-year, risk-adjusted performance set against benchmarks.