Key departures at Man Group’s AHL fund

Man Group, Europe’s largest listed hedge fund manager that's in the midst of another round of cost-cutting, has lost some key personnel from its struggling AHL quantitative fund.

Riju Sathyan, chief operating officer at AHL for nearly ten years, has been laid off, according to sources close to the situation. He had responsibility for bolstering assets under management, as well as oversight of people, finance and the operational side of the business. He left in August.

Meanwhile, Robert Carver, formerly head of fixed income at AHL, who was working as a senior research fellow from June, left this month and is currently on gardening leave.

Steffan Berridge, previously co-head of portfolio management at Man Group who took over developing AHL Dimension in September last year, has also left and is relocating to Australia. ‘Dimension’ was a new fund unveiled by the company earlier this year as part of an overhaul of AHL, and is a multi-strat product designed to allow investors to gain exposure to the full suite of its funds.

Man Group said in August that it intends to cut a further $75m, following a $195m cost-cutting drive in 2012, largely by reducing the company’s global footprint on the distribution side as well as sharing more back-office functions.

In April, it announced sweeping changes to its flagging AHL business, including launching new funds, embarking on a hiring spree and setting it up as a separate entity under a new corporate structure. However, since March the number of FCA approved persons working for AHL Partners has declined from 99 to 82. AHL Diversified, Man's flagship fund, was down 3.2% this year to June.