Alan Howard raises over $700 mln for his new fund - sources

[LONDON] British hedge fund manager Alan Howard has raised more than US$700 million from outside investors for a new fund that he will solely manage, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

One of the sources said the AH fund, which started trading on March 1, had raised an additional US$2 billion from the main fund at Howard's firm, Brevan Howard Asset Management.

Hedge fund firms that launch new funds sometimes move money from existing funds as well as raising cash from investors externally.

The AH Fund seeks a minimum US$50 million investment from each investor, documents filed with US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission showed. That is far bigger than the average hedge fund investment per investor of US$1.9 million, according to data from global industry tracker Preqin.

A spokesman for Brevan Howard declined to comment.

Mr Howard's new fund, which is named after his initials, will charge a management fee of 0.75 per cent and a performance fee of 30 per cent.

The product - which is still open to new investment - has been launched at a time when Brevan Howard, which manages US$14.6 billion, has seen an asset decline of around US$22 billion since 2012, from a combination of losses and client withdrawals.

Howard founded Brevan Howard in 2002 along with four former colleagues from Credit Suisse and quickly gained assets based on savvy macroeconomic bets.

Brevan Howard was granted an injunction on March 23 to prevent Reuters publishing a story about the firm, claiming the company's right to confidentiality outweighed public interest.

REUTERS