One of the hottest hedge fund launches of the year might've found itself a name

pulse

June 15, 2017 10:31 PM

Michael Gelband's anticipated hedge fund launch, which has been taking talent from Izzy Englander's Millennium, has registered a potential name: ExodusPoint.

It looks like a highly anticipated hedge fund that has been taking talent from Izzy Englander's $35 billion fund has a potential name: ExodusPoint.

The name was registered in a filing by Michael Gelband, and has been floated among industry insiders over the past several weeks. Gelband is Millennium's former fixed income head, and he has been in talks with Hyung Soon Lee, Millennium's former equity chief, to start their own fund.Registering the name doesn't mean that it's what they'll go with, of course. One person close to the matter told Business Insider that it isn't yet clear if that's the plan.Still, the name has been drawing attention over the past several weeks.

At least one person who flagged the name thought it was a play on the departures from Millennium who are expected to join the startup. They include Peter Hornick, Millennium's former head of business development, Business Insider reported earlier this year. Several others have recently left Millennium, and some could end up there, too.

You could call it an exodus.

Gelband abruptly resigned from Millennium at the start of the year after Englander, Millennium's billionaire founder, refused to grant him ownership in the firm, Bloomberg reported in January. Gelband had spent eight years at the hedge fund and told colleagues that he had transformed the fixed income team from a money-losing operation to one that created $7 billion in trading revenue, according to the report. Millennium says the numbers are unsubstantiated.

Gelband's startup would come up against competition from other monster launches expected for the coming months, namely billionaire Steve Cohen's new hedge fund.

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