Edinburgh’s investment powerhouse, Baillie Gifford – which manages £200bn – is responding to changing global markets conditions by repositioning some of its 1,600 international staff, which will lead to the loss of up to 50 positions.

Chris Murphy, a partner who joined Baillie Gifford in 2010, and is also responsible for UK local government clients, confirmed that there was an internal consultation process going on with a number of staff leaving the company before Christmas.

The decline of final salary pension scheme across Europe and now in Asia is changing the way Baillie Gifford and others are marketing their services.

Murphy stressed that 132 colleagues have changes their roles in the past year within the company to open up fresh opportunities through “internal mobility”. While 61 new colleagues have joined, include the latest 2025 cohort of six joining graduates and post-graduate joining the fund manager’s investment programme.

“There are huge opportunities for growth in United States, Europe and Asia, including in marketing. There is an evolution away from the traditional corporate DB (defined benefits) pension structure as this moves towards maturity, so the intermediary market, the route to the individual saver, becomes a bigger market.”

“The client base is not standing still in terms of their structure and what clients want to invest in. Therefore, it’s important that we’re an adaptable and dynamic organisation.”

When asked about colleagues who will be leaving?

“Will there be redundancies before Christmas? There probably will be. We are currently consulting with some colleagues who we have told that their roles are at risk of redundancy. We want to respect that process and allow it to play out,” he says.

But Murphy stressed that the firm is responding positively to change with “huge areas of growth”, including the opening of its office in Singapore, and the redundancies are not part of a “broad cost cutting exercise”.

“Genuinely, this sits heavily with us as partners because part of our stability is that people stay here for a long time. It’s a wonderful place to work. Making decisions like this is difficult, but it’s the right thing for us to be doing.”

He says Baillie Gifford is unique in a global investment sense because it is privately owned, by the 59 partners.

“It points to stability because it gives us the timeframe. We don’t have the short-term pressures of markets asking us about this month’s or next month’s performance figures.”

He says this allows the company to have the patience around strategy and managing the business, and around investment decision, which include backing the AI chipmaker Nvidia, held since 2016, Amazon, held since 2004, and the likes of Tesla and Zoom.

“We’re growth equity investors. The crux of that is trying to find the most exciting growth companies in the world. Where this comes together with clients is understanding the patience and timeframe,” he says.

Edinburgh is one of 11 worldwide offices, now with a strong presence in Asia, particularly Japan, although the largest part of the client base is in the United States.

“It is a fascinating different business today than when I joined in 2010. We’re very proud of our roots in Edinburgh starting in 1908. The evolution of the partnership absolutely underpins everything that we do in our approach to investment, looking after our clients, and our staff and colleagues.”

He said that Baillie Gifford is planning for strategic growth, and this means allowing colleagues “to be nimble with their careers”.