Deutsche Bank's asset and wealth management business has added two UK equity market investment specialists.

Deutsche has boosted its UK equity capabilities with the hires of Hilary Aldridge from Barclays and Alex Sloane from Société Générale.

Aldridge joins from Barclays Global Investments Solutions where she was most recently a fund-of-fund manager. Before this, she managed a UK equity fund at F&C Asset Management. Sloane was an equities analyst specialising in food producers at Société Générale in London.

In their newly-created roles within the European equities team, Aldridge and Sloane will be responsible for providing UK-specific analysis. They will be based in London.

“Both new hires have many years’ experience in analysing and managing UK equities. Their collective reach will significantly enhance our access and research into UK corporates and therefore our ability to identify investment opportunities,” said Britta Weidenbach, head of European equities at Deutsche AWM.

“UK stocks are a heavyweight in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, the most important pan-European benchmark, accounting for more than 30 per cent of the total benchmark. European funds that have specific stock and sector expertise have a clear competitive advantage,” said Weidenbach.

As of the end of June, Deutsche AWM had €1.14 trillion ($1.28 trillion) of assets under management. It recently announced a restructure intended to make the UK a hub for its European wealth management business. This included the appointments of Matteo Vaghi at the helm of the UK business and Andreea Grob as head of key clients in the UK.