Millennium Management has hired GIC managing director Nader Naeimi to become a senior portfolio manager based in Dubai, according to people familiar with the matter.
Naeimi spent almost three years at the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund and was most recently head of multi asset, global macro, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He is expected to build a team running a similar strategy at Izzy Englander’s multi-strategy firm, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
Representatives for Millennium and GIC declined to comment.
Hedge fund giants are ramping up their operations across the United Arab Emirates, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi becoming major hubs for financial services providers. Millennium, which manages more than US$64 billion ($86.24 billion) globally, has at least 70 employees in Dubai alone.
Millennium, ExodusPoint Capital Management and Michael Platt’s BlueCrest Capital Management have all expanded their operations in the city, adding heat to a global talent war that has seen firms poach high-profile fund managers from banks and businesses around the world.
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Naeimi was based in Singapore for GIC, which is estimated to manage US$769 billion, according to consulting firm Global SWF. He joined the firm as a portfolio manager as part of its push to build more in-house teams to generate outsized returns, rather than rely on external hedge fund managers.
He previously spent more than two decades at Australia’s AMP Capital Investors Ltd.
