Morgan Stanley to raise capital for hedge fund clients

Morgan Stanley has launched a new global initiative to raise capital for hedge fund clients in return for a fee, a company spokesman said.

The bank said on Friday that it had hired Jenkin Leung, former managing director at Lehman Brothers' institutional sales team, to head capital-raising for Asia. Leung was also chief executive of Hong Kong-based hedge fund Hindsight.

Dubbed the alternatives capital group, the six-member team was spread across New York, London, Hong Kong and Dubai, the spokesman said.

The team, headed globally by New York-based David Barrett, is responsible for identifying top-of-class alternative investment products and marketing them to asset owners, including sovereign wealth funds, pension plans and family office.

Other banks, such as Credit Suisse , which have growing prime brokerage businesses, are also starting to offer the capital-raising service. Officials at Credit Suisse were not immediately available for comment.