(Adds October returns, overall assets under management forfirm)
LONDON/NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Leading European hedgefund firm Brevan Howard has cut around 50 support staff acrossits global operations, a source familiar with the matter onFriday said, as part of a plan to focus on its flagshipmacro-economic funds business.
The move comes after a tough period for Brevan Howard'sroughly $20 billion macro hedge fund, which recorded its firstannual loss in 2014. The fund was down 0.68 percent in October,resulting in a year to date loss of about 0.40 percent,performance data seen by Reuters showed.
In a statement issued by the company, Brevan, which hasoffices in several 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, made some high-profile hires earlier in the year tobolster 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.
Brevan Howard has overall assets of $24.8 billion. (Reporting By Simon Jessop in London and Lawrence Delevingne,editing by Sinead Cruise and Alan Crosby)