Drew Gillanders to join Steven Cohen’s Point72

Drew Gillanders, a top European hedge fund manager, is set to join the London arm of Point72 Asset Management, the family office of Steven Cohen, the billionaire trader who founded SAC Capital.

According to people familiar with the move, Mr Gillanders will start work at the firm after a six-month gardening leave. He is expected to be a portfolio manager focused on the healthcare and consumer sector, these people added.

Until recently, Mr Gillanders was working as a merger arbitrageur at Och-Ziff Capital Management, a rival to Point72, where he was frequently identified as one of the top traders in his field. Och-Ziff has suffered a decline in assets under management and suffered a net loss in 2016 after getting hit by a record US fine for paying bribes in Africa.

Och-Ziff and Point72 declined to comment. Mr Gillanders did not respond to multiple attempts to reach him. Bloomberg earlier reported on Mr Gillanders’ departure from Och-Ziff.

Mr Gillanders previously worked with Mr Cohen at SAC Capital before he joined Och-Ziff. Steven Cohen has attempted to rebuild his image with Point72, which exclusively manages his money since it cannot expand by accepting money from external investors because of the insider trading conviction in 2013 of SAC Capital. Mr Cohen was not charged with any offence, but he is banned until 2018 from overseeing client money