Swip acts to rebuild international team

SCOTTISH Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) has strengthened the international equities team that was last year raided twice by its rivals.

Stephen Corr joins from Blackrock, where he was a director, and will focus on portfolio management and research on pan-European and Canadian stocks.

James Kinghorn will cover North and Latin American equities, having spent nine years at the Scottish Investment Trust, while Kleinwort Benson's Craig Bonthron joins to manage and develop Swip's "ethical and environmental products".

Martin Currie last year raided Lloyds-owned Swip twice in a fortnight, resulting in its developed and emerging markets equity teams being merged into an international stocks squad, led by head of international equities Mike McNaught-Davis.