Portfolio manager Torkell Eide is leaving global equity heavy-hitter SKAGEN, after four years at the head of the Norwegian mutual fund company. 

Eide is leaving SKAGEN to join his former employer, AKO Capital, a London-based investment organisation.

Lead manager Kristian Falnes will continue to head the firm with portfolio managers Søren Milo Christensen and Chris-Tommy Simonsen.

Falnes has a long history at SKAGEN, having worked as portfolio manager for the firm’s Vekst fund since 1997. He assumed sole responsibility for the Norwegian fund in 2000 before taking the helm of SKAGEN Global in March 2010.

Since then, the firm has returned on average 7.8 percent per year, increasing assets under management from £3.6 billion ($5.4 billion) to £4.4 billion ($6.6 billion) as of 1 July 2013.