First State's David Gait has maintained his position at the top the leaderboard of fund managers working for houses with a significant Scottish presence.
Mr Gait, whose funds cover Asia Pacific, India and emerging markets, is ranked 87 out of the 3216 managers across Europe monitored monthly by Citywire, up two places from the previous month. In the latest rankings, which cover three-year performance to February 28, there are 65 Scottish managers with an 'A' rating or above, though only the top seven bag the coveted 'AAA' mark.
The fine performance margins between different funds were demonstrated as Mr Gait's team colleague Jonathan Asante saw his ranking drop from 534 to 753 placing him 19th in the Scottish table, just ahead of First State's veteran manager Angus Tulloch at 796.
Franklin Templeton is the only fund house to improve its position, with 22 managers (up from 21) out of the 93 achieving a Citywire rating. Standard Life Investments drop from 17 managers to 15, Baillie Gifford and Aberdeen both ease from 13 to 12, Kames drops from eight to seven, and Saracen loses one of its two rated managers in Graham Campbell.
The top 10 managers are the same for the third successive month, but the pack is shuffled again. Continuing his move back up the table into second place, ranked 122, is former leader Jacob de Tusch-Lec, who manages the global income and monthly distribution funds at Artemis in London. He pushes Audrey Ryan at Kames Capital, manager of the UK Opportunities, Ethical Equity and Ethical Cautious Managed funds, into third place ranked 144. Franklin Templeton equity manager Ben Russon slips one place to fourth, his ranking down from 126 to 168, while colleague Colin Morton, down 100 places to 314, comes in at ninth. In between them are four familiar names from Standard Life Investments. Thomas Moore and Edward Legget, co-managers of the UK Equity Income Unconstrained fund, and Colette Conboy, International Trust manager, take the next three places despite losing ground in the UK table. Jacqueline Lowe, a former table-topper and manager of SLI's Dynamic Distribution fund, moves up from 377 to 364 but is just outside the AAA threshold. The top 10 is completed, as it was in January, by Iain Buckle who handles corporate bond and managed funds at Kames. Mr Buckle is ranked 453 overall, just ahead of James Foster at Artemis.
Former Scottish league leaders Sarah Whitley and Matthew Brett, Baillie Gifford's Japanese specialists, climb back up the table to 13th and 14th places, and are followed by colleague John MacDougall, who runs the Japanese smaller companies fund.
Among the minnows, SVM leads the way with four rated managers headed by Margaret Lawson, though her ranking slips from 842 to 1038 over the month. The other small independent house managers to feature are Barry Norris and Oliver Russ (Argonaut), Craig Yeaman (Saracen), Francis Seymour (McInroy &Wood), and Hector Kilpatrick (Cornelian).
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