Barclays and BAML MDs kick-start new hedge funds

Senior investment bankers and managing directors within firms' markets functions are increasingly deciding to go it alone. After decades of experience working for a bulge bracket bank, many are deciding it's better to be their own boss.

The latest examples come out of Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Abhinav Shah, a managing director at Barclays in London, has just launched an event-driven value investment fund called Rosevine Capital, according to his public profile. He spent the last 13 years at Barclays, having joined from Societe Generale in 2004.

Meanwhile, Richie Revill, a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, has launched Sherwood Forest Capital Partners, according to new filings on Companies House. Revill worked at BAML in London for over seven years, as a senior distressed credit professional. He joined the bank in June 2010 from Barclays where he was an executive director in distressed credit, but has also worked in leveraged finance roles at both Lehman Brothers and Citigroup. Revill was also head of leveraged credit research at J.P. Morgan in London in the late-1990s.

Both men are tapping into the current trend for senior investment banking professionals in both London and New York to escape big firms for their own boutiques. Despite the difficult operating environment for hedge funds, many MDs in banks' markets divisions or senior buy-side professionals are launching their own firms.

David Perez, a former Goldman Sachs managing director who moved to expansionary hedge fund MKP Capital Management, recently launched an alternative lending platform called YAD Capital. Maxime Kahn, the former star SocGen trader who unwound €70bn worth of Jerome Kerviel’s trades in 2008, left the bank in November and unveiled his new hedge fund, One Eleven Capital, in July. Meanwhile, Kevin Flaherty, the former head of structured product syndicate for Europe, Asia and Australia at Deutsche Bank, launched a new fund called Neptune Capital a few weeks ago.

Stephen Yang, a former portfolio manager at Man Group/GLG launched his own long/short equity hedge fund Curam Capital Management in the middle of last year and has just started hiring. He brought in Robert Walker, an M&A analyst working at HSBC in London.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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