Fidelity to Lay Off Two Key U.K. Managers

Fidelity International and its U.K. partner Dalton Strategic Partnership will be saying goodbye to David Urch and Jonathan Cobb, two high-profile equity portfolio managers they hired to work in the Edinburgh office just before the credit crunch, Dow Jones reports.

Urch, who was with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, came on board in January, and Cobb, who was with Standard Life Investments, has been with Fidelity International for the past year.

Fidelity will now run its U.K. equities management out of London.

“We originally planned to locate two portfolio managers in Edinburgh to manage institutional U.K. equity portfolios almost two years ago,” explained a Fidelity spokeswoman. “Since that time, the business climate has changed considerably, and following a review of portfolio management responsibilities, we have decided to manage all U.K. equity portfolios from London.”