The former chief executive of one of the UK's largest quoted asset managers, Henderson Global Investors, has been lured out of retirement to take over the top job at Pioneer Investments, a week after the Italian group's incumbent chief unexpectedly announced his departure.

Italian bank UniCredit said Roger Yates would become its head of group asset management activities - that is, Pioneer, with €170bn ($260bn) of assets under management - in mid-January. Pioneer's chief executive Dario Frigeiro announced abruptly last week that he would leave at the end of that month, with no one named at that stage as his successor. A spokesman for UniCredit said Yates would not be making further comment "for the moment".