UBS AG Adding Hedge Fund Unit

With so many asset managers losing investment management talent to hedge funds, many have struck back by starting hedge fund units of their own.

UBS AG is the latest to adopt that strategy, appointing John Costas, the former investment banking chief, to the top spot at Dillon Read Capital Management, Bloomberg reports.

"It's no secret that if we lose people, we lose them to hedge funds," said Peter Wuffli, CEO of UBS. He explained that now, with UBS running its own hedge fund group, it will help "extend the talent lifecycle of some of our very successful traders and investment bankers."

Costas is being replaced by Huw Jenkins and will take 120 people from the fixed-income and commercial real estate investments team. Costas has been with the firm since 1996, when he was at Credit Suisse First Boston.

Also, UBS is merging its domestic, Swiss and international wealth management units as a cost-reduction measure. As part of the change, Mark Sutton, who heads the Wealth Management USA business, will become CEO for the Americas .

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.