Liontrust, the London funds house which is the subject of takeover talks, is to suffer the loss of two star fund managers who manage over 90% of the company's assets, shocking investors and raising questions about the future of the business.

Liontrust announced this morning that Jeremy Lang and William Pattisson, joint investment directors at the company, will depart the company. At the beginning of the year they managed £3.1bn (€3.4bn) out of Liontrust's total £3.4bn assets under management, according to a spokesman at the company.