With his non-compete agreement with his former firm behind him, one-time GLG Partners star Philippe Jabre is back in business with a new hedge fund. Jabre, who to date holds the record for the largest fine paid by an individual to the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority for insider trading (£750,000), has opened Jabre Capital Partners in Geneva, Switzerland. So far, according to Financial Times, the firm is starting out as a friend and family affair, with his brother in law, Phillippe Riachi, leaving as Morgan Stanley’s head of risk management in its international prime brokerage unit, to become chief operating officer. Jabre reportedly has reached into the familiar to build up his staff with several former colleagues from GLG, such as portfolio manager James Saltissi and Daniel Horsely, a risk analyst. And familiarity with him is breeding a cash flow to help reach the $2.5 billion target set for the first year of his maiden fund, a multi-strategy number, kicks off in February. “I’ve never been for a drink with a hedge fund manager where people were literally throwing money at him,” a Jabre rival told FT. “One guy asked when the fund would be ready, and said he was in for 50 [million].” FT reports that Jabre is going to great lengths to avoid tapping clients of his former firm, but has retained Lehman Brothers, which holds a minority stake in GLG, to join UBS and Morgan Stanley as a prime broker.
