Moore Capital is losing former SAC Capital portfolio managers as Point72 builds in London

When Steve Cohen's SAC Capital closed its London office in November 2013, Moore Capital Management was quick to capitalise. It hired a nine-strong investment team of portfolio managers and analysts. Now, just three remain.

Alexios Papaconstantinou, a portfolio manager with a focus on event-driven strategies at Moore, is the latest of the former SAC employees to go. He departed at the end of May. Meanwhile, Nicholas Aldridge, another former SAC portfolio manager who also joined Moore Capital as part of the team lift out, left in April.

The nine investment staff to join Moore Capital in February 2014 were Israa Al Bayaa, Nicholas Aldridge, Arjun Menon, Alexios Papaconstantinou, Bramen Singanayagam, Martin Stapleton, Louis Villa, Atallah Esptephan and Rahil Kuchiera.

Neither Aldridge’s nor Papaconstantinou’s destination is yet clear, but if they follow the path of his former colleagues it’s likely he could join Point72 Asset Management’s new London office. Point72, of course, is the re-branded ‘family office’ of SAC founder Steve Cohen and re-launched a new London office in January for which it could eventually hire 70 people.

Of the SAC investment team who joined Moore Capital in February 2014, three have already returned to Point72. Israa Al Bayaa, a utilities and infrastructure focused portfolio manager, joined as a partner, as did global long-short portfolio manager Arjun Menon. Analyst Atallah Estephan also re-joined the hedge fund.

There are three of the former SAC team left at Moore. Bramen Singanayagam, a portfolio manager who was promoted to partner at Moore last month, and portfolio managers Louis Villa and Martin Stapleton are still employed there.

Meanwhile, Ben Halfacre, an analyst who left SAC to join Michael Hintze’s CQS in 2012, left the hedge fund in May.

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