Martin Currie expands global emerging markets team with double Swip hire

Martin Currie has poached Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip's) head of global emerging markets equities Kim Catechis to join its global emerging markets team by the end of the year as the firm expands its global emerging markets investment proposition.

Catechis will be joined by Alistair Reynolds, who currently heads Swip's global emerging markets (GEMS) Smaller Companies mandates and is a specialist in Central and Eastern European mandates.

The pair have worked together at Swip for the last decade and have combined investment experience of 43 years. Their appointments mark a restructure and expansion at the Edinburgh-based firm with a separation of the newly formed global emerging markets team from the Asian equities team.

At Swip Catechis oversees £2.2bn of assets across seven distinct strategies while Reynolds joined Swip in 2000 and is the research manager and investment director on the GEMS desk and lead manager of the GEM Smaller Companies and specialist Central and Eastern European mandates with responsibility for consumer (ex Latin America) and healthcare sectors.   

Swip said their roles would be filled by Jeff Casson and Andrew Ness, while adding that it was actively looking to recruit more managers.

Over the past year Catechis has returned 67.7% against the benchmark's 69.8% according  to Lipper.

Martin Currie chief executive Willie Watt said: 'We are delighted to have attracted two investors of the calibre of Kim and Alastair. Emerging markets are now a mainstream asset class and it is our intention to build a world class offering to help our clients achieve their investment goals. They are highly rated by the market and enjoy strong institutional support from clients all around the world'.