Senior Barclays repo trader signs up to Millennium hedge fund spin-off

Paul Clarke

Sarah Hodges (nee Daulby), a senior repo trader who spent over ten years at Barclays, has joined Symmetry Investments, one of the most hotly-tipped Asian hedge fund launches of 2014 from former Millennium Capital Partners executives.

Hodges joined Symmetry in London earlier this month as head of fixed income financing, having previously been a director within Barclays’ repo trading team.

Feng Guo, a former portfolio manager at Millennium, and Michael Robinson, who was managing director and Asian regional manager at the firm, unveiled plans to launch Symmetry Investments in July last year. The fund was to spin out from Millennium, which was reported to plough $1.2bn into the fund, launching simultaneously in Hong Kong and London.

Both Guo and Robinson, who is chief operating officer at the firm, are based in Hong Kong, but Symmetry has also been bringing in new recruits in London. As well as Hodges, Jackie Jordan has joined as chief compliance officer – a role she held at now defunct hedge fund Clive Capital until November – and Stuart Wilson, who ran treasury and middle office at Comac Capital, was brought in as global head of operations.

Symmetry has yet to receive approval from the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, but is registered on Companies House, and is one of the most hotly-anticipated launches of 2014 in Asia. It is expected to receive a further $200m from external investors, making it one of the largest funds in the region.

Repo trading doesn’t appear to be a particularly safe place to be in investment banking currently. It is one of the business areas likely to suffer as investment banks are forced to respond to tougher leverage ratios, suggests an April report from Morgan Stanley analysts and Huw van Steenis Hodges.

Hodges joined Barclays in 2003, but left in February this year. She has a Masters in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

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