Boutique fund manager Crux Asset Management Ltd has announced the appointment of Baillie Gifford Asia investment specialist Ewan Markson-Brown to lead a Crux expansion into Asia.

AAA-rated fund manager Markson-Brown will work with Crux to establish a new office in Edinburgh.

Crux has £1.7 billion in assets under management — compared to the £236 billion managed by Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based investment giant.

“The AAA-rated manager regularly outperformed the MSCI Asia Index ex-Japan and was responsible for managing the Baillie Gifford Pacific Fund, which ranked in the top decile for one-, three- and five-year performance in its sector,” said Crux.

“Since 2014, Ewan was also Lead Manager of the Pacific Horizon Investment Trust plc, which over five years achieved a 374% return for investors.”

Crux CEO Karen Zachary said: “Ewan brings great experience as well as an exemplary track record of value creation for investors in Asian equities.

“With the scalable platform Crux has built over the last five years, his appointment will enable us to expand into Asia with complementary strategies that fit seamlessly into our core active equity management approach.

“Built on a commitment to fundamental research, an ethos of collaboration and a track record of outperformance across equity benchmarks, Crux’s teams have the investment tools and experience to further diversify into new regions and broaden our investor base.

“We look forward to continuing to deliver the scale of performance that can only be achieved by active management with aligned investment aims to our clients globally.”

Crux said Markson-Brown has has spent over 20 years managing emerging markets and Asia portfolios and also co-managed the Baillie Gifford Emerging Markets All Cap Fund.