Ignis strengthens UK equity team with appointment of Mark Holden

• Mark Holden appointed manager of the Ignis UK Focus Fund
• Ralph Brook-Fox appointed manager of the Ignis Balanced Growth Fund
• Bilal Raja appointed as UK equity analyst

Ignis Asset Management is pleased to announce a significant strengthening of its UK equity team following a restructure of the division in February 2011. Accordingly, Ignis can disclose that Mark Holden will be joining the company from Vestra Wealth to manage the £112 million Ignis UK Focus Fund.

Mark, who will officially join Ignis later in the year, will be based at Ignis’ London offices and will report directly to Mark Lovett, Chief Investment Officer, Equities. At Vestra, Mark was a Partner and a member of the Investment Committee and Chairman of the Equity and Bond Committee and was responsible for the management of the Vestra Most Preferred List.

Ignis can also announce the appointment of Bilal Raja, who joins Ignis as a UK equity analyst. Bilal has extensive experience as a UK and European analyst and will focus a large proportion of his time on project based ‘deep dive’ company analysis. Ignis will be making further UK equity analyst appointments in due course as it seeks to strengthen the team further.

Ralph Brook-Fox, the current manager of the UK Focus Fund, will be moving within the team to run the £173 million Ignis Balanced Growth Fund with immediate effect. Ralph will continue to manage the UK Focus Fund until Mark joins Ignis. Ralph will also work with Mark Lovett in driving forward Ignis’ institutional mandates. The Balanced Growth Fund has been managed on an interim basis by Mark Lovett since the restructuring of the UK equity team in February. The handover to Ralph will allow Mark to further concentrate on his CIO and team management responsibilities.

Mark Lovett, CIO Equities, says:
“We continue to take significant strides in strengthening our UK equity proposition and Mark’s appointment is another demonstration of our commitment to enhance our UK retail products. Having worked with Mark at Morgan Grenfell I know what a talented fund manager he is and we look forward to benefitting from his experience and skill when he joins the UK team.
“I am also pleased to welcome Bilal Raja, an extremely talented analyst, to the team. Bilal will play an instrumental role in driving investment performance as we continue to strengthen our UK equity offering. I look forward to appointing further analyst resource to the team in due course.”

Mark Holden, says;
“I am delighted to be joining Ignis at this exciting stage of the company’s evolution. I look forward to working with Mark Lovett and the rest of the talented investment team to help enhance and develop the UK equity retail business into a market leading offering.”