St James's Place (SJP) is merging its UK Growth and UK Equity funds into the UK & General Progressive fund, and ousting Majedie Asset Management as it aims to create new 'building block' funds.  

As part of these changes, Baillie Gifford and LA Capital Management will be appointed to the fund, renamed the UK fund, along with Schroders, who currently manages the Managed Growth fund, BlackRock, Columbia Threadneedle and RWC.

All changes take place from 14 July.

James de Uphaugh, chairman and chief investment officer of Majedie Asset Management, is currently the lead manager of the £104m UK Growth fund and co-manager of the £842.3m UK & General Progressive fund. He will be removed from the funds as part of the changes.

Those two funds in addition to the £854.2m UK equity fund, mean the new UK fund will have £1.8bn in AUM.

All the funds have underperformed their benchmark, the FTSE All Share in three and five years, according to FE fundinfo.

Since the start of 2016 the FTSE All Share has returned 29.12% while the UK Growth fund has returned 11.1%, UK & General Progressive has made 9.7% and UK Equity lost 2.5%.

In a statement the wealth management group said the changes are "part of the long-term investment strategy to create asset class ‘building blocks'".

Tom Beal, Chief Investment Officer at SJP said: "By merging three of our existing funds…the resultant UK fund will offer a balanced mix of different investment styles that includes quality, growth and value.

"Blending managers in such a manner is intended to improve the consistency of returns and ensure that client outcomes are not determined by a single investment style being in or out of favour in the market."