Nick Vidale, a former portfolio manager with Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM), will soon begin work with an Australian hedge fund firm.

Vidale, who decided not to join Aberdeen Asset Management during that company’s $116 million acquisition of DeAM’s local equities and fixed interest funds management business, will begin work with Arnott Capital in coming weeks. Ben Parker, Arnott’s chief operating officer, said the firm would not comment on the appointment. Founded by Kenny Arnott, the manager is known to implement equity long-short, credit arbitrage and event-driven strategies. It launched its first vehicle, an equity long-short fund with $25 million in seed capital, in September 2005. Arnott Capital maintains a withdrawn, almost reclusive, public profile, following one of the early traditions of alternatives managers. The firm does not run a website and some of its key personnel are understood to be working from offices in locations removed from financial centres, such as Byron Bay in northern NSW.