Man Group Combines Hedge Fund Units, Names Ellis as President

Date: Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Author: Chris Larson, Bloomberg

Man Group Plc, the biggest publicly traded hedge fund manager, combined two computer-driven hedge fund units and made management changes in recent weeks before Emmanuel Roman takes over as chief executive officer next week.

Luke Ellis, who has been head of the FRM fund of hedge funds unit, was named president of London-based Man Group, David Waller, a company spokesman, said today. Ellis has oversight of the investment operations of Man’s three main investment divisions -- FRM, GLG Partners and ALM, which runs the firm’s largest hedge fund, AHL.

AHL, which has underperformed its peers and lost assets to client withdrawals, is being combined with the Man Systematic Strategies group, Waller said. AHL’s assets under management fell to $16.3 billion in the third quarter of last year, from $16.7 billion three months earlier and from $19.5 billion as of March 31.

Other recent senior-level changes include Sandy Rattray, named CEO of AHL. He replaced Tim Wong, who is now executive chairman of AHL. Mark Jones and Teun Johnston were named co-CEOs of GLG. Jones had been the chief operating officer of that unit.

Man Group announced the changes in internal memos over the past few weeks, Waller said. Roman, 49, is scheduled to take over as CEO from Peter Clarke, 53, on Feb. 28, the same day Man Group reports its year-end earnings.

Man Group’s share price is rebounding after declining to 63.25 pence, a 13-year low, in July. It was up 2.4 percent to 110 pence at 12:57 p.m. today, giving it a market value of 2 billion pounds ($3.1 billion).

The Financial Times reported the changes yesterday.