Following the departure of a large chunk of its fixed income team, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) is on the hunt for five new fund managers.

Since losing Rob Davidson, its global head of fixed income and four members of his team to Alliance Trust in August, there was uncertainty as to whether SWIP would look to replace these departures or simply transfer staff internally.

Currently, Andrew November has overall responsibility for fixed income, and SWIP appointed Neil Murray and Luke Hickmore to manage all investment grade portfolios.

But it’s now advertising for five new fund manager positions within its fixed income and cash teams, suggesting recent upheaval in the senior ranks hasn’t dampened the firm’s appetite to hire.

A spokesperson for SWIP told Financial News that: “There are huge opportunities for SWIP in the fixed income sector and we are actively recruiting to expand the team.”

Last month, two other key members of SWIP’s investment team left the firm. Robert Waugh, head of UK equities quit to take a position at Royal Bank of Scotland, while Graham Wood, the group’s chief investment officer for equity, has left as part of an ongoing strategy shake-up at the firm.

SWIP is now the sole asset management function of parent company Lloyds Banking Group, following the sale of Insight Investment Management to Bank of New York Mellon in August. As a result, SWIP’s assets under management swelled by 45bn to around 125bn.