Bill Mott

Dr. Mott, who retired from Credit Suisse at the end of last year will join PSigma Asset Management in a new division established for former Credit Suisse managing director Ian Chimes.

Mott had originally announced his retirement in 2006 only to delay it after his successor on the Credit Suisse Income fund, Errol Francis, walked out of the firm.

An equity income fund is to be launched for Mott that will be available as soon as regulatory approval has been received.

Mott will be assisted by Graham Fuller in managing the fund. Fuller previously managed pension funds for Credit Suisse. He later moved to Newton where he managed balanced segregated pension accounts.

PSigma Asset Management will be 50% owned by the three former Credit Suisse colleagues and 50% by the Punter Southall Group.

SGAM European Special Situations

Societe Generale Asset Management has recruited Craig Harper, head of equities at Japanese investment house Daiwa, to take over its European Special Situations fund.

Harper joins SGAM together with fellow Daiwa managers Ken Wren and Matthew Robertson.  Harper officially joins the group on 2 April and will replace Stuart Gilmartin as manager on the Special Situations vehicle.

SGAM has also revealed it is to merge Gilmartin's Europe fund with the Special Situations vehicle.  The group said the merger is expected to take place in the next six months.

Gilmartin became lead manager on both funds last September following his co-manager Matthew Leeman's defection to Morgan Stanley's European equity team.  Harper is also taking over the Concentrated Euroland and Concentrated European funds.

Gilmartin will remain with the European team and provide input on investment decisions while relinquishing overall control of his funds.

SWIP Global Bond Plus & Scottish Widows International Bond

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has changed the manager on two of its underperforming bond portfolios.

Craig Veysey takes over the Swip Global Bond Plus fund from David Millar and the Scottish Widows International Bond vehicle from Graeme Caughey.  Veysey was most recently associate director at WestLB Mellon Asset Management where he was responsible for managing over $1.2bn in global bond funds.  He was previously a senior fund manager in the global fixed income team at HSBC Investment Management, after beginning his career at Tilney.

Millar is to remain head of bond strategy and co-manager of the SWIP Absolute Return Bond fund.

New Star Equity Income

New Star's Stephen Whittaker has taken over the firm's Equity Income fund, bringing its holdings broadly in line with his UK Growth vehicle.  Whittaker, who is also joint CIO at the firm, inherited the income fund, which has seen patchy historic performance, from Tim Bray, who remains with the firm, focusing on the institutional side of the business.

While the lower-yielding stocks in UK Growth do not feature in Equity Income, there is roughly 50% overlap between the two vehicles.  Both have their largest sectoral weighting in banks, counting HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HBOS among their top 10 positions.

Since taking over the portfolio, Whittaker, who worked alongside equity income veteran Neil Woodford during his time at Invesco Perpetual, has turned over around 50% of the portfolio. 

Fidelity American

Fidelity has replaced the manager of its American fund, Jason Weiner, with recent recruit Aris Vatis.

Weiner has run the American fund since March 2003 and will be moving to manage the Fidelity Adviser Equity Growth and VIP Growth funds, both US retail portfolios.

Vatis joined Fidelity's UK-based global equity team in June 2006 from Pictet Asset Management, running a US institutional pension fund for the group since last September.