Dillon Read Vet Plans Commercial Real Estate Hedge Fund

Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Author: FINalternatives

Another former executive from a defunct UBS hedge fund group is planning his own hedge fund firm.

Brian Harris, who ran the commercial real-estate lending business at Dillon Read Capital Management, is in the advanced stages of preparing his first hedge fund for his new firm, Ladder Capital, TheStreet.com reports. The new firm is expected to focus on commercial real estate, specifically high loan-to-value bridge loans at high lending rates, the same area he specialized in at Dillon Read and UBS. Harris was not responsible for the subprime mortgage investments that led to Dillon Read’s shutdown last May.

It is unclear how many funds Harris, who is currently fundraising for the new offering, is planning at Ladder Capital. TheStreet reports that the firm is seeking a chief financial officer.

Harris is the latest in a spate of Dillon Read vets to pick themselves up off the carpet. Earlier this year, Mike Hutchins, the hedge fund group’s former chief investment officer, started his own hedge fund firm, BlueHawk, with about 15 other former Dillon Read employees. In addition, five other Dillon Read veterans, including former global head of equities Aziz Nahas, joined 1798 Global Partners, a hedge fund firm seeded by Swiss private bank Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch.