U.K.-based F&C Asset Management has recruited of a team of fixed income hedge fund specialists from London & Capital and is launching a global diversified fixed income hedge fund, the F&C Tourmaline Fund, within the first quarter.

The lead manager on the F&C Tourmaline Fund will be Sanjay Joshi, who headed up the London & Capital Fixed Income team between 2004-2007 and started up the firm’s fixed income hedge fund business. Other members of the team joining from London & Capital are senior fund managers Rabbani Wahhab, Mario Nicolaou and analyst Shilen Shah.

"This is an important development for F&C Alternative Investments and a mark of F&C's ambition to grow our hedge fund presence,” stated Fernando Ribeiro, head of investments at F&C. “We will continue to actively look for further opportunities to attract the right talent as a prerequisite of launching additional hedge funds."

F&C Asset Management was created in October 2004 from the merger of F&C Holdings and ISIS Asset Management. The London Stock Exchange-listed firm was managing £104 billion (US$ 202 billion) as of the end of 2006.