The London-based asset manager has made a double senior hire to its fund management team.

Sarasin & Partners has appointed CCLA's Simon Steele and Neil Mitchell as fund managers.

The pair join from investment and property fund manager CCLA and will manage a combination of segregated and pooled equity mandates. They report to Sarasin & Partners' head of asset management, David Allen.

Steele, who served as investment director at CCLA since 2010, brings 20 years’ experience of managing UK and global equity portfolios. Mitchell was previously global equity manager at CCLA. As a member of CCLA’s investment committee, he led equity-specific sector and geography allocation decisions.

“They have significant experience of managing higher yielding equity portfolios and will bring a wealth of experience to our highly collegiate and long-established investment team. Simon will work as co-manager of our global equity income mandates with Darryl Lucas, while Neil will work as co-manager on our UK mandates with Jennifer Ramsey and Phil Collins,” said Sam Jeffries, a partner at the firm.

“We have high hopes that they will help us maintain our strong performance record and further broaden the appeal of our funds to a wider range of investors.”

Sarasin & Partners manages around £13.8 billion ($21.2 billion) of assets under management, of which £10.7 billion is allocated to equities.