Fidelity International, which has been attempting to rebuild its UK institutional business after losing some of its largest pension fund accounts, has been hit by the defection of an institutional marketing specialist to River and Mercantile Asset Management.

Nick Slater, currently an institutional client relationship director at Fidelity, will join River and Mercantile in the summer as institutional marketing director. Prior to joining Fidelity, Slater spent four years at MM Asset Management.