Aviva Investors has handed its fixed income investment chief a wider brief leading a new liquid markets unit comprising fixed income, multi-asset and equities, in a bid to build on the early success of the AIMS multi-strategy offering launched by the £267 billion fund manager two years ago.

The leadership and structural changes, which have also seen the firm name new global heads of equities and fixed income, were announced in a statement on January 20. The moves follow the decision by David Lis, who has been with Aviva for 18 years and is the firm's chief investment officer for multi-assets and equities, to retire in March this year. He will remain involved in a consultant capacity.