ABN Amro is to increase its exposure to hedge funds by investing €250 million in a vehicle, Merebis Capital Management, which is being set u...

ABN Amro is to increase its exposure to hedge funds by investing €250 million in a vehicle, Merebis Capital Management, which is being set up by its former equity derivatives team.

Merebis is being set up by Gary Wolens, a former head of ABN Amro equity derivatives, and three colleagues, Paris Badekas, Jean Maigrot and Geoffrey Wyatt.

Although the team left their jobs at the Dutch bank at the end of 2004, it continued to pay them to develop the hedge fund although it has taken no stake in the hedge fund's management company.

Last year ABN Amro bought London's International Asset Management, a fund of hedge funds manager, and invested €100 million in the €1.5 billion listing of a hedge fund by UK-based hedge fund manager, Marshall Wace.

Merebis is aiming to raise at least another €250 million before closing its fund. The fund will have seven strategies: convertible bonds, distressed debt, commodities, risk arbitrage, event-driven, volatility dispersion, and long/short equity.