05/10/2011 Author: Gwyn Roberts

Moore Capital star trader to launch new spin-out firm

A Moore Capital spin-out started by one of the firm’s star traders, his team and a number of industry veterans is shaping up to be one the largest launches of 2012, HFMWeek has learned.

Stone Milliner Asset Management, currently being established by a partnership of London- and Zurich-based Moore employees – led by FX luminary Jens-Peter Stein – and two former Morgan Stanley directors, will open for business as soon as 1 January 2012.

Although an independent entity, with offices in London and Switzerland, the new venture, sources say, will enjoy “broad-based” support from Moore Capital, where Stein and his team ran a global opportunistic portfolio within the $4.3bn Macro Manager Fund.

According to a number of prime brokers, the fund could launch with over $1bn in assets under management, with some of the initial investment coming from Moore Capital.

“This is a talented team, which is thought to have the financial backing of Moore; it is one of a handful of new funds that could launch with significant assets next year,” one told HFMWeek.   

Stone Milliner’s first fund will follow a global-macro strategy and will be managed by Stein and his team from Moore, which includes London-based Chris Nicoll, as well as Zurich-based Kornelius Klobucar. Stein served as global head of Morgan Stanley’s foreign exchange trading and fixed income macro trading group, before joining Moore in 2006.  
  
Nicoll also has significant FX experience, leaving Moore last March to head up Morgan Stanley’s foreign exchange and emerging markets desk, before returning to Louis Bacon’s $15bn management firm later that year.

The new firm, which also includes former Morgan Stanley directors Peter Murray and Paul Kimball, has also recently hired a fulltime COO as it looks to staff-up in advance of its launch in the new year.

Adam Grant, most recently COO with Rab Capital Management, is thought to have joined Milliner last week in a similar role. Moore is well-known for backing spin-outs. Earlier this year, Paul Findley, a respected trader at the firm, left its London office to start Bramshott Capital, a long/short European equities fund. It was reported at the time that Findley was likely to receive backing from his former employer.

Last month, HFMWeek reported that Bramshott had raised almost $500m since opening to investors in June.         
According to documents filed at Companies House in London, Stone Milliner Asset Management was incorporated on 11 July 2011. The new business is currently seeking FSA approval and is expected to make a number of additional hires before its launch in the first quarter of 2012.