John Ions to step up as Liontrust announces departure of Legge

Liontrust's chief executive and co-founder Nigel Legge announced last week he is stepping down, to be replaced by new head of retail John Ions.

His departure comes as the group aims to recover from the loss of star managers Jeremy Lang and William Pattisson in January 2009. In Q4 of last year, the firm reported a 8% fall in AUM to £1.2bn, and in Q1 of this year it posted outflows of £53m. However, Legge says the business has now started to stabilise with the arrival of a credit team from equity manager Ilex, led by Simon Thorp, and Ross Hollyman who joined from GAM. Legge is the public face of Liontrust, which he founded in 1994 and led to flotation five years later. He will remain as a consultant until 6 August but wil...