LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Leading European hedge fund firmBrevan Howard has cut around 50 support staff across its globaloperations, a source familiar with the matter on Friday said, aspart of a plan to focus on its flagship macro-economic fundsbusiness.
The move comes after a tough period for Brevan Howard's $2.9billion macro hedge fund, which recorded its first annual lossin 2014. The fund was down 0.7 percent in September, resultingin a year to date loss of 1.1 percent, performance data seen byReuters showed.
In a statement issued by the company, Brevan, which hasoffices in a slew of global financial centres including London,Geneva and New York, said it had cut the largely back and middleoffice staff following a decision to exit certain non-corefunds.
The firm, which is headed up by billionaire veteran investorAlan Howard, has made some high-profile hires earlier in theyear to bolster its investment team, which specialise in bets oninterest rates, currencies and fixed income markets.
These include Roberto Hoornweg, formerly global co-head offixed income at UBS, Michael Lyublinsky, formerly global head oftrading at RBS, Scott Eichel formerly global head of assetbacked products and U.S. credit at RBS and Pravin Mouli,formerly head of Latin American rates trading at BarclaysCapital. (Reporting By Simon Jessop in London and Lawrence Delevingne,editing by Sinead Cruise)