Horlick gives up equities role at SG

Nicola Horlick, nicknamed the City's "superwoman" in the 1990s, has stood down as head of equities at SG Asset Management after a dismal performance in the company's UK equities business.

She will continue to be chief executive of SG Asset Management, a post she took up in May.

Hugh Sergeant will be the new head of equities at SG, which is owned by France's Société Générale. Mr Sergeant, who joined SG from UBS Global Asset Management last week, will also take over the running of the company's UK Growth retail fund.

UK Growth underperformed significantly compared to rival funds last summer because its managers called the upturn in the equity markets too early and were subsequently hammered by 11 September and the collapse of Enron and WorldCom.

This fund was managed by John Richards. This is the second high-profile setback for Mr Richards, who used to work at Mercury Asset Management and was criticised with other Mercury fund managers for the dramatic underperformance of Unilever's pension fund assets.

The Unilever pension fund sued Mercury, now owned by Merrill Lynch, for £70m at the end of last year. SG said Mr Richards would continue to be the company's chief investment officer.

A spokesman denied institutional clients had put pressure on SG to make the management changes, but said some had "noted" the performance of the UK fund.

The company said Ms Horlick took over directly running the equities department in the spring as a temporary measure after its previous head, Peter Seabrook, quit.