Swip grows UK sales fivefold in last 18 months

From a tough start as the merged business of Lloyds TSB and Hill Samuel, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership is now forging its own identity in the retail-fund market

When Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (Swip) was formed in 2000 through the merger of Lloyds TSB's fund-management arms Scottish Widows Investment Management and Hill Samuel Asset Management, the initial signs were not encouraging. Scottish Widows, after all, was a life office, and Hill Samuel was one of the more venerable names in fund management. Unimpressed by the merged group's relocation to Edinburgh, many of the London-based Hill Samuel team jumped ship. Indeed, there are several high-profile figures in the investment world today who have Hill Samuel Asset Management somewhere ...