David Urch and Chris Alexander, UK specialist equity managers at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, have left the firm to join Martin Currie and hedge fund specialist Lansdowne, respectively.

The news follows the decision of Peter Davies and Stuart Roden to quit the MLIM specialist team, led by Steve Thompson. Davies and Roden, who were in charge of MLIM's UK Dynamic retail fund, have left to set up their own fund, also for Lansdowne. Urch and Thompson took charge of Merrill's UK Dynamic retail fund following their exit.