VINAY Agarwal, manager of First State Investments’ Indian Subcontinent Fund, has topped a league table of Scotland’s fund managers after climbing 11 places in Citywire’s ranking of almost 3,000 global managers.

Mr Agarwal, who is AAA rated by Citywire, was ranked 15th in a table of 2,987 fund managers rated by Citywire, with the rankings based on risk-adjusted performance over the three years to the end of December.

The Scottish table ranks managers from fund houses with a significant presence north of the Border, with First State gaining a foothold in the Scottish market via the 2000 acquisition of Stewart Ivory and Co.

During the period under review the First State Indian Subcontinent Fund, which is co-managed by AA-rated Richard Jones, outperformed its benchmark by 40.8 percentage points. The MSCI India Index grew by 14.6 per cent in dollar terms over the period while the fund grew by 55.4 per cent.

On a sector basis the portfolio, which takes small positions in companies in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as India, favours consumer staples, taking a 20.7 per cent position against the index’s exposure of 9.3 per cent. Its largest holding is Nestle India, which accounts for six per cent of the portfolio.

Mr Jones, who along with Mr Agarwal joins six other First State managers on the list, slipped down the overall rankings in December after the other fund he manages – First State Asian Equity Plus – underperformed its benchmark.

Having ranked at number 479 in the global listing in November, Mr Jones was placed at number 616 in December. The Asian fund, which is benchmarked against the MSCI AC Asia Pacific ex Japan Index, made a return of two per cent in the 12 months to the of December against growth in the benchmark of 6.9 per cent.

Just three of the managers on the list were awarded a AAA rating in the December rankings, with Mr Agarwal’s First State colleague Sashi Reddy and Franklin Templeton’s Sukumar Rajah being the other two. All three managers are based in Singapore.

Of the fund houses that are based in Scotland, Kames Capital, which was formerly known as Aegon Asset Management, has the highest number of managers on the Scottish list at four.

Stephen Snowden, who is ranked fourth in the Scottish table and 494th overall, is one place higher than his colleague Euan McNeil, who ranks 502nd in the global table. The pair co-manage Kames’ Investment Grade Bond and Investment Grade Global Bond funds while Mr McNeil also manages the Kames Ethical Corporate Bond Fund.

Three Baillie Gifford managers are ranked while Standard Life Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management have one each.

Baillie Gifford’s Iain McCombie, manager of the fund house’s Managed fund, is the highest ranked of the three who feature. The A-rated manager, who is 13th in the Scottish table, slipped down the global listing from month to month. Having ranked at position 920 in November, he fell to number 1,049 in December.

His colleagues Stephen Paice and Tom Coutts, who co-manage the Baillie Gifford European fund, improved their rankings overall, moving from a joint place of 1,305 to 1,294 and 1,295 respectively.

Standard Life Investments’ David Cumming, who is ranked 14th in the Scottish table and 1,131st in the global one, is responsible for one fund - UK Equity Recovery - while Aberdeen Asset Management’s Ralph Bassett, who ranks 16th and 1,254th respectively, runs two.

The Aberdeen North American Equity Fund grew by seven per cent in 2016 against 11.4 per cent in the benchmark S&P 500 index while the Aberdeen North American Smaller Companies Fund grew by 21 per cent against the Russell 2000 index’s growth of 20 per cent. The former has a large exposure to financials stocks at just under 17 per cent while the latter’s largest sector weighting is industrials, at 21 per cent.

Both are concentrated portfolios with North American Equity holding a total of 42 stocks while the smaller companies fund is made up of 49. Their largest respective holdings at the end of 2016 were Visa and Beacon Roofing Supply.