Annous leaves Merrills small cap for Capital

Habib Annous, manager of the Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) UK Smaller Companies and UK Value funds, has left the group to join institutional US fund manager Capital International. Annous is now on gardening leave, having left his role on 13 May. The UK Smaller Companies fund is to be managed by Carl Lee, who has previously run pan European smaller companies mandates, while James Macmillan, who heads up the MLIM Value investment team, will take the lead role on UK Value. The loss of Annous is a blow to Merrills which has struggled to retain key personnel in recent months and A...