Investec Asset Management CEO Hendrik du Toit, managing director of UK distribution David Aird and other senior employees are to acquire a 15% stake in the business for £180m.

Shares in Home Retail Group and Ocado - two of the most shorted stocks in the UK equity market - have leapt this morning after a pair of well-received announcements.

Underlying pre-tax profit at F&C rose 11% to £52.4m in 2012 as the group's 18 month restructuring programme drew to a close.

UK income investors could be in for a dividend windfall as sterling continues to slide against the dollar, analysts have suggested.

Old Mutual Wealth CEO Paul Feeney is to join the executive committee of parent group Old Mutual as it reorganises its management structure.

Liontrust's UK equity managers Jan Luthman and Stephen Bailey have been diversifying their overseas exposure and cutting back on consumer staples firms as they take profits from stocks including Heinz, Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser.

AXA IM's Nigel Thomas has added to his position in wealth manager St James's Place, whose shares have fallen 4% today as Lloyds Banking Group placed a 20% stake in the business into the market.

Troy's Trojan Income fund manager Francis Brooke has sold his position in Aberdeen Asset Management after its share price doubled in the space of 12 months.

Fears that the UK is heading for a triple-dip recession appear to have been confirmed by worse-than-expected January manufacturing data, analysts have suggested.

Threadneedle is preparing to soft-close Philip Dicken's £1bn Pan-European Smaller Companies fund, Investment Week understands.