Former Citadel portfolio manager Vince Aita’s new Cutter Capital Management, backed by two institutional investors, has begun trading with $275 million.
(Bloomberg) — Former Citadel portfolio manager Vince Aita’s new Cutter Capital Management, backed by two institutional investors, has begun trading with $275 million.
The cash, invested in the health care-focused hedge fund through separately managed accounts, will be leveraged up to $550 million, according to a letter to prospective investors seen by Bloomberg. Cutter is looking to raise an additional $200 million for its flagship fund, offering a founders’ share class with cheaper fees that will open to investors Oct. 1.
Aita’s market-neutral fund will bet on and against health care, with a focus on US and European pharmaceutical and biotech stocks. The firm expects “groundbreaking” health care news to include results from a landmark obesity study, the launch of a new class of treatments for Alzheimer’s and potentially “paradigm shifting” approaches to auto-immune diseases, according to the letter.
“In each of these opportunities, there is the potential for news flow to uproot the foundational standard of care in their respective medical specialties,” the firm said in the letter.
A spokesman for the New York-based firm declined to comment.
Before starting Cutter, Aita spent seven years at Ken Griffin’s Citadel, most recently as a portfolio manager for its stock-picking business, Surveyor Capital, where he traded health care stocks. Before that he was a senior analyst at Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management.
Cutter’s five-person team includes Chief Operating Officer Kerry Kourepenos, who previously worked at hedge funds Hitchwood Capital Management and Scout Capital Management, and research director Calvin Nash, who spent two years at ExodusPoint Capital Management, where he was a portfolio manager for its WestWind Asset Management arm. He, too, previously worked at Millennium.
Aita named his firm after the cut fastball — also called a cutter — which he considers the most versatile pitch in baseball.
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