(Bloomberg) -- A portfolio manager at Dubai’s Magellan Capital has departed months ahead of the hedge fund’s planned $700 million launch, which is set to rank among the largest debuts in the United Arab Emirates.
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The money manager, Britney Lam, joined the multistrategy fund in May and left in October. She’s no longer based in Dubai, according to a person familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named as the information is private.
Lam declined to comment.
Her replacement is set to start in January and the firm is on track for a first-quarter launch with at least three portfolio managers, a representative for the fund said.
“Magellan has hired multiple portfolio managers since the summer,” the firm said. It currently employs more than 15 investment professionals, split across public and private investments, and is overseen by Ahmed Omar.
Magellan’s size is notable, given just 5% of hedge funds globally started with $500 million or more this year, according to industry tracker Preqin. Its upcoming launch has been viewed as a boost to Dubai’s reputation as a burgeoning hub for the sector.
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Lam is a two-decade veteran of the industry and previously worked at Ovata Capital in Singapore. She specializes in inter-sector pairs trading across a universe of around 200 tech and consumer-focused companies and their suppliers in the US and Asia.
In an interview earlier this year, Lam told Bloomberg News that the fund will run equity and credit strategies. That relies on taking long positions in certain companies while shorting direct competitors, or finding arbitrage opportunities between producers and their suppliers.
Magellan’s seed capital comes from the family wealth of Hassan El Ali, who founded Zakher Marine International and sold it to a unit of UAE state-energy firm Adnoc two years ago. The sale provided $1.1 billion for Magellan to invest, Omar said in June when the firm agreed to pay more than €700 million ($735 million) for Danish Ship Finance.
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