UK – Societe Generale Asset Management UK has announced a further restructuring and the departure of a handful of fund managers.

Rufus Warner, head of UK institutional marketing, is to move to the Paris office to take on a northern European institutional marketing role. Saker Nusseibeh, head of institutional marketing for global equities, will take over from Warner in the UK.

On the fund management side, David Richardson, UK equity manager, Jonathan Greig, head of Japanese equities, and Sam Mercer-Nairn, US equity fund manager are reported to have been made redundant in a cost-cutting attempt by the UK asset manager.

Greig will be replaced by his former deputy, Neiloy Ghosh. Jeff Atherton, formerly of TCW - acquired by SGAM last year - will be the new deputy head of Japanese equities.

Adrian Godsen, UK fund manager and lead manager on the UK income fund, also recently resigned to move to Artemis. His role will be overseen by Malcolm Murray, currently head of UK equity strategy at SGAM UK.

Also this week, SGAM UK announced the departure of its co-founder and chief executive, Nicola Horlick. She is taking a role within the broader SG group as special advisor to Philippe Collas, SGAM’s president and chief executive. She will be replaced by co-founder and executive chairman, Keith Percy.

SGAM UK has been under scrutiny after suffering below average performance in its UK equity pooled funds in the first three quarters of last year. This was blamed on a premature bullish stance on the asset class. At the end of 2002 fund performance began to pick up, however, and SGAM UK produced fourth quarter returns of more than three percent above the index.

Cost-cutting by fund managers is causing concern among industry participants as an increasing number of investment professionals are being forced to leave the market.

A recent survey by Watson Wyatt showed that more fund managers are leaving the industry than at any point in the past seven years.