Scottish Widows Investment Partnership is to appoint a new property chief next month following the surprise early retirement of Malcolm Naish.
The investment manager announced on Wednesday that 59-year old Naish, who joined the business as director of real estate in October 2007, is to leave SWIP at the end of June.
It added that an announcement “around the management of the team” would be made next month.
Since joining SWIP at the onset of the credit crunch, Naish has won a number of new contracts and built up its real estate team from 30 to 50 people.
In the past year he has been overseeing the integration of £2.4bn of new property assets that SWIP Real Estate was awarded by parent Lloyds Banking Group.
Lloyds transferred the mandates from its other part-owned investment manager, Invista, triggering a wind-down of the business. This move fuelled speculation over whether or not Lloyds intended to remain a long-term owner of SWIP.
Market sources commented that this uncertainty could have led to Naish’s decision to leave the business, which has £8bn of real estate assets under management – making it the fifth-largest fund manager in the UK.
Naish confirmed that he had decided to take early retirement, saying: “After more than 40 years in real estate, this is the fourth recession that I’ve been through in my career. I felt that this was a good moment to leave on a high.”
He was unable to comment on who would replace him, or on whether SWIP would look for an internal or an external candidate.
A SWIP spokeswoman also declined to comment on any successor but said the firm had “no plans for restructuring”.
Prior to working at the Edinburgh-based investment manager, Naish had worked at firms including Jones Lang LaSalle and DTZ. He is a member of the British Property Federation policy committee and the editorial board of the Investment Property Forum.
