Cantor Fitzgerald has poached a team of seven risk arbitrage professionals, three traders and four sales staffers, from Lehman Brothers in New York to kick start a risk arbitrage desk. Joseph Gabor, managing director and head of the team, which joined Monday declined comment. Tom Ryan, spokesman at Cantor in New York, confirmed the hires but declined further comment. It could not be determined how risk arbitrage will fit with CantorÕs brokerage business.
Risk arbitrage, also knows as merger arbitrage, attempts to profit from the movement in share price of corporates involved in takeovers. It was a popular strategy in the 1980s and with an increase in M&A activity looks set to come back into fashion, noted one market observer.
Fred Appel, managing director and head of relative trading at Lehman in New York, declined comment.
