Bloomberg – Three former Macquarie Group Ltd. quantitative strategists have started a hedge fund with the backing of Ascalon Capital Managers Ltd. to invest in global equities using computer-trading models.

Helix Partners Ltd. will invest using strategies developed by Brandt Leahy, Justin Webb and Matthew Perone, who worked as an investment team that used trading models at Macquarie Funds Group, Sydney-based Ascalon said in an e-mailed statement today. Helix is targeting $50 million in funds managed by the end of 2010, $200 million by end-2011 and over $500 million by 2015, Webb, 27, said in a telephone interview from New York.

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Tags: funds group, hedge fund, helix, macquarie group, strategists

Reuters – Australian investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd has managed to quell concerns on its capital position but is now bracing for its next big challenge of the global credit crisis: how to prevent its world-renowned specialist listed-funds model from crumbling.

Macquarie pioneered the specialist listed funds model in the early 1990s, encouraging even some Wall Street investment banks to follow suit. Fees from managing specialist funds made up 13.3 percent of Macquarie’s total income in the year to March 31, 2009.

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Tags: australian investment, capital position, credit-crisis, early-1990s, global-credit, investment-bank, investment-banks, macquarie group, renowned specialist, reuters, specialist funds, wall street, wall street investment