24/02/2010 Author: Elana Margulies

Corniche set to seed new quant fund

Corniche Group, the London-based family office of the Saudi Arabian Farsi family, is to seed a new quantitative hedge fund, formed by two former prime brokers.  

The offering is part of Algodeal, a systematic trading platform for independent traders. With plans to eventually raise close-to $3bn, the new fund, also called Algodeal, was set up by former Lehman Brothers prime broker Benjamin Filippi and ex-Newedge employee Jean-Christophe Allemand. Paris-based Algodeal will launch at the end of the second quarter and initially invest in futures and then equities.

Seeding the Algodeal fund is Corniche Group’s second involvement with Filippi and Allemand. The family office had already backed the investment company Algodeal, which was set up in mid-2009. It provides traders access to the Algodeal in-house automated trading strategies. The platform went public 16 February.

“Quant trading has a large capacity and we found a family office backing us to allow us to start our company,” said Filippi.

By year-end, Filippi said he hopes to grow the fund to 200m and then ultimately, several billion dollars.
Corniche Group invests in a range of companies, including Ixit, a UK-based mobile software company and QuantHouse, a worldwide provider of systematic trading solutions.

At Lehman Brothers, Filippi was former head of prime brokerage product management in Asia, while, Allemand was a former head of Newedge in Paris.

Corniche Group was started by Saudi Arabia-born Hani Farsi in June 2007. After graduating from American University in 1992, he worked in the Washington DC office of Amnesty International, Before moving to London in 1993 to begin managing the family’s assets.