Baillie Gifford, an Edinburgh based asset management firm, has appointed Praveen Kumar as fund manager of the £239m Japanese Smaller Companies Fund with effect from 1 December.
He will also assume responsibility for the £160m Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon investment trust, the asset manager said.
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Praveen replaces John MacDougall who is moving within the firm to a role managing global equities.
MacDougall, who managed both funds for the last eight years, will work closely with Kumar to ensure the smooth transition of portfolio management responsibilities, the company said.
Kumar joined Baillie Gifford in 2008 and became an investment manager on the Japanese Equities team in 2011.
Baillie Gifford head of Japanese equities Sarah Whitley said: "As a firm we currently manage over £11.3bn of Japanese equity assets of which over £5bn sits in Japanese Specialist portfolios and have a strong long-term track record in the region based on a team oriented approach to stock-picking.
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By GlobalData"Praveen Kumar will be supported by Baillie Gifford’s Japanese Equities team, which currently comprises five investment managers and three analysts with over seven decades of collective market experience."
