Point 72 Asset Management, Steve Cohen’s family office and a hedge fund that still employs some 960 people, is doing some big hiring in London. In a change of strategy, it’s also opening the door to former UK employees ousted in the wake of its London office closure in 2013.
Conveniently, some senior investment professionals who used to work for what was SAC Capital Advisors in London have just left their jobs.
Arjun Menon, a former partner at SAC Capital who joined Moore Capital as a portfolio manager for its long short equities portfolio in February 2014, has now left. Meanwhile, Mauro Pizzi, who joined Bluecrest Capital Management as a partner on its equity long short portfolio in December 2013, has also departed this month.
There’s no guarantee that they’ll turn up at Point 72 again, of course, but the timing of their departure is strangely convenient. Point 72 is doing some big hiring in London – building its St James Square office up to 70 people and adding 15 investment professionals over the course of 2016.
Doug Haynes, president of Point 72 who initially joined as head of human capital, said previously that it for some previous employees in London it has “opened the door for them to come back”. Usually, once an employee leaves the company, that door is closed.
The big question right now is whether Point 72 will start accepting external capital again and return to being a hedge fund proper, rather than a family office. Haynes said this week that it would only do so if it was necessary to meet its long-term goals. The key right now is hiring though: “We are not capital constrained – we are talent constrained,” he said.
Menon started out as a healthcare investment banker at Morgan Stanley before moving across to its private equity division. He joined KKR in 2009 and moved across to SAC in May 2011 to run its global IPO and capital markets investments.
Pizzo worked for Lehman Brothers until he joined GLG Partners in 2002. He launched his own hedge fund, Urwick Capital in 2004 before joining Fenician Capital Management as a partner. He signed up to SAC in February 2011.
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