Morgan Stanley's global head of stock trading just quit to join a $35 billion hedge fund (MS)

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February 14, 2017 7:24 PM

Peter Santoro was Morgan Stanley's global head of equity trading.

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Morgan Stanley's global head of equity trading, Peter Santoro, is leaving the firm, according to people familiar with the matter.

He is expected to join hedge fund Millennium, replacing Hyung Soon Lee, the firm's former equity chief, according to the people.

Santoro did not return messages to his office line or mobile phone. Morgan Stanley and Millennium could not be immediately reached for comment.

Santoro was promoted to global head of equity trading at Morgan Stanley in January 2016 after Sam Kellie-Smith took over the fixed-income business. Before that, he was in charge of equity trading for the Americas.

Previously, he had stints at Citadel and Citigroup, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Equity trading is Morgan Stanley's marquee business.

The division earned $8.04 billion in revenue last year, compared with $5.12 billion for fixed-income trading. That total was down 3% from 2015. In the fourth quarter, the division earned $1.95 billion in revenue, compared with $1.5 billion in fixed income trading.

Following Santoro's departure, the bank has appointed Alan Thomas as head of equities, for the Americas. He previously served as cohead of prime brokerage and led Morgan Stanley's financing business.

Izzy Englander’s Millennium manages about $34.8 billion as of the start of February, with more than 2,100 employees working across the US, Europe, and Asia, according to the firm’s website.

Millennium's main fund posted its poorest performance since 2008 in 2016, up just 3.3%, according to a Bloomberg News article from earlier this year.

Portia Crowe and Matt Turner contributed reporting.

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