(Bloomberg) -- Ken Griffin’s Citadel hedge fund business is tapping a senior Segantii Capital Management Ltd. staffer to head its Asia-Pacific treasury team, said two people with knowledge of the matter.
Andrew Pidgeon, who was recently Segantii’s global head of treasury and financing, is expected to start at Citadel in mid-August, said one of the people, who asked not to be named discussing private information. His responsibilities will include managing liquidity and relationships with counterparties including prime brokers and banks.
Pidgeon didn’t reply to a social media message. Citadel declined to comment via an emailed statement.
Griffin has a hedge fund arm overseeing $63 billion globally by the start of this month and a market-maker business. Both have been beefing up their senior ranks as they continue to broaden their footprints in the Asia-Pacific region, expanding into new geographies and trading areas.
Citadel’s hedge fund business has about 200 employees in Asia. While most of them are based in Hong Kong, it has been expanding in Singapore. Citadel recently bought Energy Grid Corp., a company founded by a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. trader that sells risk management products to help Japanese companies hedge against price swings in the electricity market.
Citadel Securities LLC, the market-making arm, earlier this year recruited Millennium Management LLC’s Vikesh Kotecha as its Asia-Pacific head. Kotecha was head of Asia equities at Millennium.
Once one of the region’s largest and most consistently-performing hedge funds, Segantii, its founder Simon Sadler and a former trader are facing criminal prosecution in Hong Kong for allegedly insider trading ahead of a 2017 block trade. Segantii’s assets peaked at around $6.2 billion in late 2021 before falling to $4.7 billion at the end of May.
Segantii had strategies not related to capital markets deals, including arbitraging the price gaps between related stocks or shares of the same companies listed on different exchanges as well as quantitative trading.
While vowing it will vigorously defend itself, it announced two months ago it was returning all client capital, as the allegations prompted some banks to reassess their dealings with the hedge fund, and its investors requested to withdrew nearly $1 billion.
Segantii employed 151 people in offices including Hong Kong, London, New York and Dubai at the end of March, according to its website. It has since cut scores of jobs, many of them in Hong Kong where geopolitics and China’s slowing economy already significantly slowed financial industry hirings.
Pidgeon’s new gig represents another piece of positive news for Segantii job seekers. Last week, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission officially granted a license to Viridian Asset Management Ltd., a new hedge fund firm started by Pascal Guttieres, a Segantii portfolio manager for seven years, specializing in equity capital market deals, including block trades.
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