According to YourMoney.com’s sister publication Investment Week, Invesco Pan European Equity Income fund manager Stephen Lamacraft, alongside fellow fund managers Paul Lamacraft and Saku Saha, have all quit their current roles and will move to join Woodford Investment Management imminently.

All three managers were part of Invesco Perpetual’s UK equities team, previously headed up by Woodford, although only Stephen Lamacraft managed money.

Saha and Paul Lamacraft focused on assessing the smaller, often unquoted companies in which Woodford took an increasing interest during his latter years at Invesco.

The hires for Woodford Investment Management come just days after the income star officially left Invesco Perpetual, having handed over responsibility for his multi-billion pound income funds to Mark Barnett earlier this year.

It means Woodford now has a four-strong investment team with many years’ experience around him, having already recruited Russell Harrop, who had been director of global equity sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The group is expected to launch its first product – a UK equity income fund – shortly, having already built up sizeable sales and operations teams ahead of Woodford’s official exit from Invesco Perpetual.

Money is starting to flow in to the new business, as expected.

Wealth manager St James’s Place said last month it is to reallocate over £3bn in mandates currently run by Invesco Perpetual to Neil Woodford.

In a huge shake-up of its allocations, the firm agreed a deal with Oakley Capital that will see Woodford Investment Management run SJP’s UK High Income, UK Equity and Income Distribution funds, which have around £3.65bn in assets under management.

Hargreaves Lansdown is also in talks with Woodford’s new firm, with the group’s first fund expected to feature in the platform giant’s Wealth list of receommended funds when it launches.

Invesco Perpetual confirmed both Lamacrafts and Saha have decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities.

It said Lamacraft’s responsibility for the UK equities element of the Invesco Pan European Equity Income fund has been taken over by James Goldstone, UK equities fund manager, who works closely alongside Mark Barnett, Martin Walker and Ciaran Mallon.

It added Saha and Paul Lamacraft’s responsibilities were primarily as analysts within the team, with their roles now covered by Frederick Bouverat and other members of the UK equities team.