A senior investment consultant has criticised Britannic Asset Management's promotion of two in-house fund managers to lead its UK equity investment team rather than appointing a heavy-hitting external candidate.

Britannic's UK equities team has been in need of a full time head since May this year. Following a year of underperformance, control of the UK equities team was taken from Margaret McLaren and given back to Peter Reid, chief investment officer and who had been UK head until March 1999.