ILS trader Al Selius has left BlueMountain and joined another New York-based alternatives manager after the shrinking hedge fund was bought by Assured Guaranty last month, Trading Risk can reveal.
Sources said Selius has moved to One William Street, an independent firm founded in 2008 with more than $4bn of assets under management. Led by David Sherr, the firm focuses on credit and other investment strategies.
Selius had joined BlueMountain in 2017 from another hedge fund, Pine River, where he had spent four years running an ILS portfolio.
Before that, he ran Swiss Re's ILS trading desk and has also worked for Securis Investment Partners and investment bank UBS.
At one stage, Selius oversaw as much as $350mn of ILS holdings at BlueMountain, covering cat bonds and other instruments such as ILWs or sidecars, but the firm has been gradually liquidating the portfolio this year, sources said.
It is understood Selius will have a similar mandate at One William Street.
BlueMountain was founded in 2003 as a credit-focused firm, but it diversified into other strategies across a wide range of asset classes as it experienced a boom in growth, reaching $23bn in 2016, according to The Financial Times.
This had dropped to $18bn as of October this year, amid poor performance in its flagship fund and redemptions. These factors led its prior backer Affiliated Managers Group to write off $415mn in value on its holding in the hedge fund in Q1, ahead of the sale to Assured Guaranty.
One of its co-founders, Stephen Siderow, is leaving the firm at year-end following other senior departures, and its flagship fund is being closed. The firm had taken a bet on PG&E equity before the utility went into bankruptcy.
Assured Guaranty said it will allocate $500mn of its financial guaranty subsidiaries’ portfolios to the asset management platform over the next three years, and that the platform will now focus on core investment strategies including credit, global markets and private capital.
One William Street did not respond to a request for comment.
