Launched in 1868, the trust is believed to be the oldest in the world. Its aim is to generate long-term growth and income by investing mainly in an international portfolio of listed equities. The trust invests in more than 490 listed companies in 29 countries.
Mr Tigue will retire towards the end of the year after the handover process is completed. Simon Fraser, chairman of the Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, said: "After considerable and careful due diligence, the board of FCIT is pleased to appoint F&C's Paul Niven as the new fund manager of FCIT. We are confident that Paul is strongly placed to build on the historic success of the trust, and we look forward to working with him in the future."
Mr Fraser paid tribute to Jeremy Tigue's long and successful contribution to the company over the last 17 years. He said: "At 31 December 2013, a £1,000 investment made at the time of Jeremy's appointment would now be worth £3,215, with dividends reinvested, which compares with £2,697 from the FTSE All World Index. The company's dividend has risen every year and is now well over three times greater than the 2.51p paid in 1997, significantly outpacing inflation."
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Marrack Tonkin, head of investment Trusts, F&C Investments, said: "As chair of F&C's asset allocation committee, Paul is responsible for deciding F&C's asset allocation across F&C's fund range. He has extensive experience managing large diversified investment funds and has worked closely with Jeremy for a decade, making him ideally suited to managing our flagship trust in the future.
"Jeremy decided in the second half of last year that he should step down as manager of FCIT as and when all the arrangements for succession were in place. We would like to express our warmest thanks to Jeremy for his contribution to FCIT and F&C Asset Management during his long and successful tenure here."
Mr Tigue said: "It has been a privilege to be responsible for continuing Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust's record of growth over the last 17 years and I would like to thank the board, my colleagues, our advisers and all the shareholders for their support and encouragement over that time.
"I am delighted the board has appointed Paul Niven to succeed me. Paul is an expert investor with huge experience of managing large funds. He will do an excellent job for shareholders."
F&C Investments operates from offices in nine countries and manages £82.1 billion of assets (as at 30/12/13) for a combination of insurance clients, institutional investors, intermediaries and private individuals which collectively represent over 3m underlying savers.