Eight Standard Life Aberdeen managers join Aviva Investors’ new Edinburgh office

Aviva Investors has completed a raid on Standard Life Aberdeen’s senior team prior to the opening of its new Edinburgh office later this month.

After former Standard Life Investments equities head David Cumming jumped ship to Aviva in January, eight senior staff at Standard Life Aberdeen will now follow suit, it has emerged.

Aviva will take on Mikhail Zverev as head of global equities, Alistair Way as head of global emerging market equities, and Henry Flockhart and Adam McInally as UK equity portfolio managers.

The others are Jaime Ramos Martin, Ross Mathison, Jonathan Toub and Will Malcom.

Cumming will manage octuple in Aviva’s office, which is set to open later this month with a capacity of 60, the Financial Times reports.

Aviva Investor’s chief executive Euan Munro also has historical Standard Life connections for his role in launching the Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) fund.

He said: “Investing in our equities capabilities is a strategic priority for our business. These hires will enhance our ability to offer compelling equity propositions for wholesale and institutional investors, as well as strengthening idea generation for our broader range of investment solutions.”

Commenting on the departures, an Aberdeen Standard Investments spokesman said: ”Inevitably when you integrate two investment teams there will be some departures. Following the merger of Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life we have created one of the largest and best resourced equities teams in the industry.”