HFA Asset Management has hired two new investment analysts while its takeover of an American funds of hedge funds manager, Lighthouse Partners (LP), gathers momentum.

Darren Katz, newly-appointed HFA investment manager, said Baron Nie, who had just exited the Commonwealth Bank of Australia graduate program, was one of the analyst recruits. “Baron has an actuarial, statistical bent…with his strong quant bent we’ll get him involved in the modeling and structure side under the guidance of senior analysts,” Katz said. Katz would not name the second hire given this analyst had only resigned from their previous job yesterday morning. He said HFA expected to hire two further investment analysts within the next financial year. Katz has replaced Peter Coates, who will take a senior position in establishing the LP London office on July 1. “Peter has been with us for four years. He has now been seconded back to Lighthouse Partners,” Paul Jensen, HFA chief executive officer, said. Jensen said HFA was in active negotiations to acquire LP, which manages the bulk of HFA’s $4 billion in funds under management. “There will be scale benefits, and we’re excited about the strategic benefits of going into Europe and Asia.” Jensen also said that HFA were recruiting staff across all of its operations. “We’re in the process of growing. We’re looking to employ people for our distribution, adviser services and investment teams and operational areas. We’re actively looking for people.” Meanwhile, Jensen expected to raise $350 million for HFA’s Octane Global fund, whose capital raising period is due to close on 20 June. The fund overlays the HFA global long/short fund and offers exposure to the Eurostocks 50, Nikkei and S&P 500 indices.