Ex-Goldman traders land Nomura banker to lead new hedge fund

Occitan Capital Partners, a London-based startup hedge fund firm founded by a pair of former Goldman Sachs traders, has hired a Nomura banker to take on its chief executive role as the launch of its new fund draws closer, write Matt Turner and Harriet Agnew

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John Candillier, head of distribution for continental Europe at Nomura, has left to lead the business at Occitan, according to a person familiar with the situation. Nomura declined to comment.

Herve Gallo, co-founder of Occitan, confirmed the hire. “This is a natural fit and we’re extremely happy to see John joining us at Occitan. He’ll be instrumental in bringing the business to the next level.”

The move will reunite Candillier with former colleague Gallo, previously a senior equity derivatives trader at Lehman Brothers and Nomura, who founded Occitan earlier this summer with Thomas de Garidel-Thoron.

Candillier will work closely with Sophie Thieux-Billiard, who joined earlier this month as chief operating officer. She was formerly a director in prime brokerage sales at Credit Suisse. The firm has also hired Jesse McCormick, former chief operating officer at Osmosis Investment Management, as head of operations.

Garidel-Thoron had previously worked with Gallo at Goldman Sachs, and was most recently at Boussard & Gavaudan Asset Management, a special situations and arbitrage fund.

The Occitan Fund, which will invest in equities and equity derivatives, will launch on November 1. Nomura, UBS and Credit Suisse have been named as the prime brokers to the hedge fund.

Occitan has lined up a European seed investor, which will take a revenue share in the business, and a US fund of funds to be an anchor investor, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Seed investors have entered the vanguard this year during what has been a difficult capital-raising environment. Competition to secure a deal with a top seed investor is fierce because alongside the financial backing it is also seen as a big vote of confidence in the business which tends to encourage other investors to come onboard.

Recently it emerged that Blackstone Group is planning to seed a new hedge fund led by George “Beau” Taylor, Credit Suisse’s global head of commodities-arbitrage trading, and Trevor Woods, head of energy-arbitrage trading at the bank, who are leading an eight-person team out of the bank. The fund, which will launch early next year, has received a $150m backing from Blackstone.

At Nomura, Candillier was charged with growing the bank’s market position on continental exchanges. Following his departure, the heads of equities on the continent will report to Makram Fares and Mark Rutherford, co-heads of equity sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The departure of Candillier is the third senior move between Nomura and the hedge fund industry in recent months. In August, Mandy Mannix, the London-based former global head of capital introductions at Nomura, joined hedge fund CQS as global head of sales and marketing.

And in May, the bank named Christian Dalban, head of trading for Europe at Millennium Capital Partners, as head of equity trading for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Millennium Capital Partners is the London office of US hedge fund firm Millennium Management, founded by Israel “Izzy” Englander.