Former Millennium Trader Dodson to Start New Oil Hedge Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Andrew Dodson, a former partner at Izzy Englander's Millennium Management, has set up a new fund to trade oil, bucking the trend of closures among commodities hedge funds in recent years.

Dodson, who started his career at Trafigura Group and also worked at Arcadia Petroleum Ltd. and Banco BTG Pactual SA before joining Millennium, last month incorporated Philipp Advisors LLP and registered the name Philipp Oil for the new fund, according to a Companies House filing and the FCA register. Dodson is a descendant of Oscar Philipp, one of the legendary brothers whose trading house Philipp Brothers, or Phibro, dominated global commodities for decades.

Dodson, 38, is launching the London-based venture after a protracted period of lackluster returns and closures among commodity hedge funds. Legendary oil trader Andy Hall closed his flagship Astenbeck Master Commodities Fund II last year, one of at least a dozen natural resources funds to close since 2012.

Last week Bloomberg reported that weather-driven hedge fund Cumulus would return capital to investors as Citadel LLC hired about 20 of its staff.

Still, with oil prices rising to their highest in more than three years as coordinated cuts by OPEC and other countries have succeeded in all but clearing a glut of oil inventories, investor interest in the sector is picking up.

"The opportunity is the most interesting it has been, and the number of fund participants the smallest it has been, for a long time," Dodson told Bloomberg.

Dodson is targeting $500 million in assets and plans to start trading this summer, according to people familiar with the matter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jack Farchy in London at jfarchy@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net, Alaric Nightingale

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