Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The latest UK company to move hedge fund managers to Geneva is Blue Crest, Europe’s third largest hedge fund group, in a move that the Financial Times suggests heralds “a trend for part-relocations.” The company is moving 50 of its managers to Geneva, out of a head office staff of some 300. Blue Crest was created in 2000 and is worth $15.5 billion today.
The company plans to move staff at a time when the European Union is considering a pay cap for alternative investment managers; Switzerland has many bilateral agreements with the European Union but is not a member.
Armed hedges, in France
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Unigestion, a Geneva-based asset manager specializing in alternative investments like hedge funds, has opened an office in Paris, France in order to be able to offer its clients a fund that is not Swiss. Chief executive officer Patrick Fenal says in an interview with Bloomberg 21 October that Unigestion lost a mandate from a potential client because the company is Swiss. The new fund is managed by a French team in Paris and is registered in France.
Most Swiss private banks are already present in the major European Union financial centres, and can market their own funds to EU citizens directly. A source at Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, a Geneva private bank, told GenevaLunch that he did not see how Unigestion’s move could improve its marketing success with clients, except for the one potential client, already lost.
Soft landing in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – London-based hedge fund manager Brevan Howard is looking at the possibility of moving a part of its operations to Geneva or Nyon, the company announced 25 September. Brevan Howard is Europe’s largest hedge fund manager with assets of $26.8 billion at year-end 2008. The company says up to 100 people may relocate to Switzerland.
The news comes after the UK government is set to increase a tax on non-domiciled workers in the UK, and speculation that it may increase the top rate of income tax to 50 percent starting in April, reports the Sunday Times.
