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09/02/2017

Goldman Hedge Fund Shifting Staff to U.S., Folding London Operations: Reuters




Goldman Hedge Fund Shifting Staff to U.S., Folding London Operations: Reuters
Folding its London operations into the United States and shifting staff members to New York is the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners (GSIP), which opened in 2008 with one of the biggest launches in hedge fund history, reported global news agency Reuters quoting four sources.
 
The sources reportedly told the news agency that about eight staff members who made up the London team were recently asked to either quit and find a new job internally, or to move to the Battery Park City headquarters of Goldman Sach Group Inc in lower Manhattan.
 
A Goldman spokesman the reasons for the staff shift were not related to Brexit  while confirming the move but not giving any of the details, says Reuters.
 
"This is a discrete decision for reasons specific to GSIP, one investment team within Goldman Sachs, and shouldn’t be construed as anything but that," he said.
 
The sources reportedly said that managing director Nick Advani, who led the hedge fund's London operations, was the key in triggering the move.  While requesting anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, the sources reportedly said that Advani has said that he would be stepping down from his role in June.
 
Advani, now an advisory director at Goldman, did not respond to requests for comment. The sources said that Advani is expected to leave the firm later this year.
 
One of the sources said that once the move is complete, also leaving Goldman would be managing director Raluca Ragab, who had been formally leading the London-based team since Advani's departure.
 
Multi-strategy hedge fund GSIP is one of the largest hedge fund launches at the time and was launched in November 2008 with $7 billion in assets. Sitting within Goldman's asset management division, GSIP is run globally by co-heads Raanan Agus and Kenneth Eberts
 
A former employee was quoted by Reuters as saying that in recent years, it was a bog challenge that the fund was focusing on value investing with around 20 positions mainly in equities.
 
According to an investor letter reviewed by Reuters, after small gains of 1.5 percent in 2015, GSIP's Global Long Short Partners Offshore fund posted losses of 8.2 percent in the year to end-September in 2016.
 
The letter also reportedly showed that Europe Middle East and Africa region were the three areas where three of the fund's top five credit positions were at last September.
 
The U.S. Dodd-Frank financial reform law and the Volcker rule, which restricted banks' proprietary trading, proved to be a sore for the fund as Goldman pulled out $2.8 billion in response to those two laws with resulted in a fall in the assets of GSIP in 2014. The fund now manages around $3.5 billion.
 
Last month media reports also stated that separately, in response to Britain's vote to leave the European Union, Goldman may move up to 1,000 staff out of London.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com) 

Christopher J. Mitchell

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