The global asset manager has named Ian Smith and Paul Birchenough as the new managers of its UK unit trust.

AXA Investment Managers has appointed Ian Smith and Paul Birchenough to its London-based core emerging markets portfolio management team as Julian Thompson steps down from his lead role on the AXA Framlington Emerging Markets Fund.

Smith and Birchenough will now co-manage the AXA Framlington Emerging Markets Fund, previously managed by Thompson. 

Smith joined the investment manager in 2012 from Matrix Group, where he was an investment analyst, covering the financials sector in Asia. Birchenough joined in 2011 from Nevsky Capital, where he was an investment analyst specialising in Latin America.

Thompson, who leads the emerging markets team, will continue to run the firm's offshore equivalent of the fund, AXA WF Framlington Emerging Markets, while also managing segregated emerging market mandates.

Also joining the London-based team is Alex Khosla as an emerging markets equities analyst from UBS Investment Bank. He will be responsible for covering the energy, beverages and tobacco sectors as well as tracking macroeconomic issues in India, Chile, Peru and Colombia.

Over three years to 12 June, the fund returned 10.2 per cent compared to a global emerging markets sector average of 14.4 per cent, according to Trustnet.

The AXA Framlington Emerging Markets team is now seven-strong, managing $1.2 billion in asset under management.