Citadel asked some Hong Kong staff to relocate, FT reports

HEDGE fund Citadel has moved some of its core researchers out of Hong Kong, telling members of its global quantitative strategies team in recent months that they had to either relocate or leave the company, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

Miami-based Citadel told Reuters that the moves were part of a global strategy to bring teams closer.

“A small number of people not just in Hong Kong but in other locations as well had moved to a different office in the past more than two years (didn’t just happen today), so that they could be in the same location as their teams,” Citadel told Reuters.

The Financial Times report said concerns over data security were part of the reason for relocating staff.

Refuting those claims, the company said, “In Asia, Citadel’s Global Quantitative Strategy business has teams in Hong Kong and Singapore. We continue to hire QRs in both locations – if we had data security concerns, we wouldn’t be adding more people to the existing team in Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong has long established itself as a bridge between China and the rest of the world, and is a key regional hub for US financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Jane Street.

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Citadel has close to 200 staff in Hong Kong currently. A company spokesperson said the hedge fund has more than doubled its headcount in Hong Kong over the past four years and that it continues to hire in the city.

Citadel, founded by billionaire Ken Griffin, is one of the world’s most profitable hedge funds. It had US$67 billion of assets under management, as of April 1. REUTERS