NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – Private equity firm Carlyle Group is close to hiring a top banker from Deutsche Bank to head its long-planned hedge fund, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Ralph Reynolds, who is global head of proprietary trading at Deutsche Bank in New York, is set to leave the bank shortly, one of the sources said.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment.
Carlyle’s founder and managing director David Rubenstein told Reuters in February the firm was set to launch a hedge fund within the next several weeks after initially announcing the plan early in 2005.
Carlyle is the latest private equity firm to enter the hedge fund arena. Rival U.S. buyout funds The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Texas Pacific Group Ventures Inc. already have made similar moves, and others look set to follow suit.
