Bloomberg: Albert Sohn, the former head of securitized products at Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), plans to start a hedge fund this year within the bank’s asset-management unit, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Sohn, 41, is planning to oversee money for the Swiss bank’s clients and will be joined by Gary Buchalter, Amar Sujanani and Alok Verma, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information is private. Steven Vames, a New York-based spokesman for Credit Suisse, declined to comment on the plans.
Sohn’s former division was among those that thrived in 2009 and 2010 as markets recovered from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and then struggled last year as Europe ’s sovereign debt woes curbed risk-taking, depressing prices and trading volumes. Sohn, who’s worked at Credit Suisse for 18 years, this month moved to the bank’s alternative investments unit within the asset-management group, reporting to Jonathan McHardy, according to a memo sent to employees.
Under Sohn, Credit Suisse underwrote the only two sales last year of bonds tied to new U.S. residential mortgages without government backing, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The firm also ranked as the second-largest packager of mortgage securities into new bonds in the first nine months of 2011, trailing Barclays Plc, according to newsletter Asset- Backed Alert.
