Aviva Investorshas announced its intention to introduce equity research on a Pan European basis for its London based teams. This new approach will combine existing UK and European equities research capabilities to increase the breadth and scope of company research that is fed into the UK and European equities investment processes. There are no changes to the existing UK and European fund offering.

Paul Abberley, Chief Executive, Aviva Investors London, commented: “We believe that conducting ourselves on a Pan European level greatly enhances the power of our stock/portfolio research and will undoubtedly lead to greater cross fertilisation of ideas across existing portfolios. The decision to expand our equity research resources by bringing together the London based UK and Europe research functions reflects the increasingly interconnected nature of many company sectors across Europe.

“Giving our fund managers the opportunity to draw on wider and more detailed equity research to generate alpha and provide cutting edge investment solutions can only be a positive move for our clients.”

As part of the ongoing move to Pan European equity research coverage Aviva Investors has hired Robert James as Pan European Financials Analyst. In this newly created role, Robert’s research on European banks, insurance companies and other financial stocks will be fed into the investment processes of the existing UK and European equities funds. Prior to arriving at Aviva Investors, Robert worked as Europe Banks Analyst at Insight Investment. He reports to David Lis, head of UK Equities and John Botham, Head of European Equities.