(Bloomberg) -- Justin Lubell, a portfolio manager who has worked for billionaire Steve Cohen for more than a decade, is set to join Ken Griffin’s hedge fund firm later this year.
Lubell, 35, who specializes in media, internet and telecom stocks, managed more than $1 billion at Point72 Asset Management, said people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. He is one of a handful of portfolio managers with more than a decade at Cohen’s $14 billion firm and its predecessor, SAC Capital Advisors.
Representatives of Chicago-based Citadel and Stamford, Connecticut-based Point72 declined to comment, as did Lubell, who joined SAC in 2008.
Several investment professionals have moved between the two firms in 2019. This month, Citadel hired Drew Gillanders from Point72 for its London office. Including Lubell, who will take an as-yet-undetermined senior investment role at a Citadel equity unit, Griffin’s $32 billion firm has brought on four portfolio managers from Cohen’s shop this year, according to people familiar with the moves. Cohen has hired three from Citadel, including Nicolas Caron, who recently joined the London office.
Both firms have outperformed the industry average this year: Point72 returned almost 9% through May, while Citadel gained about 13%.
Cohen, who met with potential investors in Rome at an event this week put on by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is seeking to raise an additional $1 billion by September, bringing the amount of outside capital to about $8 billion. The remainder belongs to Cohen and his employees. He told the crowd that risk limits are now tighter than when he was running SAC, which he closed after the firm pleaded guilty in 2013 and paid a record $1.8 billion fine to resolve U.S. claims over insider trading. Cohen wasn’t charged with wrongdoing.
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