Skandia Investment Group has awarded a £77 million ($114 million) mandate to Swiss asset manager Mirabaud, following the removal of Gartmore’s Ashley Willing and Simon King from the Skandia UK equity portfolios.

The mandate will be run by Phillip Watson and Edward Peter-Hoblyn from Mirabaud and forms a part of Skandia’s UK Equity Blend, Aggressive, Balanced, and Cautious funds, as well as part of the Spectrum risk-rated funds.

SIG said the change “is a result of the Gartmore team not delivering in line with Skandia’s expectations in terms of portfolio management and the resulting performance.”

Ryan Hughes, senior fund manager at Skandia Investment Group, said: “If we need to make changes to the line up of our funds to protect performance, then that’s something we will actively do.

“Phillip and Edward’s investment style and proven track record make them a great addition to our UK equity portfolios. They are a brand new group for our multi manager funds and their appointment is the result of them having passed our rigorous selection process – they’ve been on the reserve bench for a while and we are pleased to introduce them to our portfolios.”

SIG comprises three fund providers: Skandia Global Funds (Ireland), Skandia Fonder (Sweden) and Skandia Investment Management (UK). It also provides services to open and guided architecture platforms.

At 30 June, SIG oversaw total assets of around £70 billion in a combination of funds and open architecture fund ranges.

SIG is part of Skandia Group, which, in turn, is owned by Old Mutual, the financial group that is listed in London and South Africa.

Mirabaud has its roots as a Swiss private bank, and is headquartered in Geneva where it was founded in 1819.  Mirabaud now offers wealth and asset management services from offices in Zurich, Basel, Paris, Monaco, London, Montreal, Nassau, Hong Kong and Dubai.