Oakley Capital Management has appointed Nick Hamilton as chief operating officer of its retail asset management business that Neil Woodford will run from 1 May.

Oakley Capital Management has appointed Nick Hamilton as chief operating officer of its retail asset management business that Neil Woodford will run from 1 May.

Hamilton returns to the UK from Australia, where he was head of institutional business at Colonial First State in Sydney, Oakley Capital Management said in a statement.

Before joining Colonial First State, he spent nine years as head of global equity products at Invesco Perpetual, working with Woodford.

He will be working alongside Craig Newman, former head of sales at Invesco Perpetual, who joined Oakley Capital Management as head of retail asset management at the beginning of January.

Oakley Capital Management said it was currently building the infrastructure which will allow the team to manage retail and institutional clients’ money from the beginning of May 2014.

The move follows the appointment of Neil Woodford, who recently announced he is leaving Invesco Perpetual to join the firm on 1 May.

Woodford is creating a new asset management business within the group, which also manages the London-listed private equity fund Oakley Capital Investments, in which Invesco is the biggest shareholder.

When Woodford announced his departure in October, several Invesco funds suffered severe outflows, wiping almost $1 billion off the firm's value, and a number of key personnel also left, including UK equities product directors William Deer and Mitchell Fraser-Jones.

Based in West London, Oakley Capital has $1 billion under management, including the private equity fund with $383.1 million of committed capital.