London macro hedge fund Gemsstock seeking to raise $400 million - letter

By Maiya Keidan

LONDON (Reuters) - London-based Gemsstock is seeking to capitalise on strong demand for hedge funds focussed on macroeconomic trends as it aims to raise $400 million (321.62 million pounds)in fresh capital, documents seen by Reuters showed.

"Macro" was the most in-demand hedge fund strategy for investors in the first two months of 2017 and the final quarter of 2016.

Gemsstock had closed to fresh investment in June 2016 after raising $800 million since between its launch in January 2014 and last summer, a source close to the firm said.

The firm, which specialises in trading macroeconomic events mainly using currencies and bonds, opened to new investor capital from April 1, the documents showed.

An injection of $400 million would take Gemsstock assets to $1.2 billion. Just 17 macro hedge funds in Europe have assets of more than $1 billion, according to data from industry tracker Preqin.

Gemsstock made gains of 19.8 percent in 2016 and 3.7 percent in the first two months of 2017, when the average macro fund made 1.04 percent in 2016 and 0.34 percent in the year to February, according to data from Hedge Fund Research.

The firm was started by ex-Moore Capital trader Darren Read and his co-founder Al Breach.

(Reporting by Maiya Keidan; Editing by Keith Weir)