Swip real estate head Naish to retire

Malcolm Naish, director of Real Estate at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip), is retiring at the end of June, having worked at the firm since 2007.

Swip acknowledged Naish's contribution to the franchise, saying he played a key role in building its real estate business to more than £8 billion in assets under management, while increasing the team from 30 people in 2007 to over 50.

In May 2011, Naish was appointed to manage £2.4 billion in new money for the insurance division of Lloyds Banking Group.

In March last year, Swip and Cushman & Wakefield Investors successfully first-closed the Pan-European Urban Retail fund, a move which Naish oversaw.

Alongside this, Naish was vice chairman of the Scottish Property Federation from 2009 to 2010, and chairman from 2010 to 2011, and he remains a member of the body.

He is also a member of the British Property Federation Policy Committee as well as the editorial board of the Investment Property Forum.

Dean Buckley, Swip’s managing director said: ‘Malcolm has overseen not just one of the most significant periods of growth for Swip’s real estate team, but also one of the most unprecedented periods in the UK commercial property market.’

Swip said it will announce Naish’s replacement in due course.

The move follows the announcement by SWIP that it is making a raft of job cuts as it repositions its equities investment strategy.

The firm said it is in the process of transitioning a number of funds into its quant-based equities strategy, which will lead to a closure of a number of smaller equity funds, and will see around 23 roles axed.

Swip recently confirmed James Clunie will take over from Peter Cockburn in managing its £371 million UK Select Growth and £124 million UK Opportunities funds.