RUMOURS swirled last night that Gordon Humphries, a senior member of the investment trust team at F&C Asset Management in Edinburgh, could be poised to move to Standard Life.
If Humphries is leaving, it would mark another departure from an F&C office which has recently suffered the resignations of two key fund managers Stephen Grant and Richard Bell.
Jason Hollands, head of communications at F&C, was last night unable to confirm or refute immediately the industry talk that Humphries could move.
Humphries, who has looked after the administration of investment trusts and liaised with their boards, did not return a call from The Herald.
No-one from the fastexpanding Standard Life Investments, which has been on the look-out for talent, was available for comment.
SLI has a relatively small investment trust operation, and has signalled a desire to develop this.
The Herald revealed two weeks ago that Bell, number two UK large-cap equity fund manager, was leaving F&C.
Bell, deputy to Rodger McNair in managing the GBP333m Investors Capital Trust and the UK equity portfolio of the GBP612m flagship British Assets Trust, was said by one source to be moving to Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford.
At that stage, amid ongoing questions among industry observers about F&C's commitment to Edinburgh, Hollands emphasised it would recruit a replacement for Bell in the Scottish capital.
F&C has hammered home repeatedly its general commitment to Edinburgh.
Bell's resignation followed the departure of Grant from the investment trust-focused Edinburgh office of F&C, which has its roots in the independent Ivory & Sime. Grant was head of F&C's smaller companies investment in Edinburgh and managed the GBP69m ISIS Smaller Companies Trust.
The board of ISIS Smaller is, industry sources say, now evaluating seriously proposals from several rival investment houses.
PeterArthur, who headed the Edinburgh operation under F&C predecessor ISIS, left in October 2004. Ian Paterson Brown, who has been there since the Ivory & Sime days, stepped down as a director of F&C last week.
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