Equity boss Wood exits in shake-up at Scottish Widows investment arm

Published on Saturday 5 September 2009 13:46

A SHAKE-UP at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has led to the departure of Graham Wood, the group's chief investment officer of equity.

On Wednesday Dean Buckley, managing director of SWIP, part of Lloyds Banking Group, made an internal announcement on his new executive team. This is part of a strategic review of SWIP, which currently has 83 billion of assets under management.

A statement said Wood, who has been with the group for eight years, would be leaving and his role filled by Buckley until a replacement was found.

A spokeswoman said SWIP would be issuing more information on its strategy and appointments over the next few weeks on the back of its move to become the "centre of excellence" for Lloyds.

Last month Lloyds revealed it was selling the third-party fund management business of its London-based Insight Investment subsidiary, which came with its acquisition of HBOS, to Bank of New York Mellon for 235 million. The "in-house" funds of Insight are being transferred to SWIP, which commentators said strengthened the position of the Edinburgh operation. SWIP has 440 employees and the movement of funds from HBOS will bring its assets under management to 125bn. It makes SWIP one of the top fund managers in Scotland. It falls just behind Aberdeen Asset Management, which handles 130bn of funds, and ahead of Standard Life Investments, which controls 122bn.

At the time, Buckley said: "We expect to increase professional resources in Edinburgh to reflect the enlarged scale of the business."

Last week SWIP said it would continue to focus on equities, bonds and property and recruit to ensure these areas were appropriately resourced. However, a statement said it would also focus on designing, building and implementing investment packages for internal and external clients with complex needs. These capabilities will be brought together under a new unit – investment solutions.

Under its previous business model, bonds and property were in the same business unit. Under the new structure, bonds and property will join equity as standalone functions reporting directly to Buckley.

A separate finance unit has also been created to allow the operations, strategy and integration team to focus on the "back bone" of its business – "ensuring that in this rapidly changing environment SWIP has the strongest and most effective platform".

The statement said: "As a result of these changes, Graham Wood will be leaving SWIP. This is a new beginning for SWIP and with that comes new opportunity." SWIP is also recruiting a director of bonds and director of finance.

Last month SWIP lost Rob Davidson, its global head of fixed income, and his team including Gareth Quantrill, Stuart McMaster and Stuart Steven, to Dundee-based Alliance Trust. They were responsible for 31bn of assets.

Speculation is rife that Lloyds will sell more assets, but recent moves are being interpreted as a commitment to Scotland. Earlier this year it announced that Scottish Widows was to be the main brand in its insurance division.