State Street Global Advisors is looking to aggressively grow its hedge fund business this year by bulking up its London-based staff fourfold from the current 10, Financial News reports. The Boston-based money manager, reportedly aspiring to compete with its rival Barclays Global Investors – BGI boasts AUM of US$13 billion to SSgA's US$3 billion – is said to be in the middle of a drive to bring in all sorts of hedge fund types, as well as commodity trading advisers, futures managers, capital structure arbitrage, event-driven and special situation managers. Last fall, Yacine Bechikh, formerly of BNP Paribas, apparently started the ball rolling by joining the firm to develop a number of strategies, and it's looking for more talent. The firm may also hire individual hedge fund managers who run their own funds as well as teams and proprietary traders, Chris Woods, who heads SSgA's London team, told FN.

Meanwhile, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts expects to name four more members to its 30-member buy-out team based in the firm's new Paris office, FN reports. The newcomers are expected to focus on developing opportunities in Italy, Spain and Scandinavia. Jacques Garaialde, who heads the Paris office, says KKR chose France over Germany for its Euro hub because the former is more private equity-friendly, and 90% of French companies have capitalization of €500 million (US$600.2 million) or more, KKR's key audience.