Morgan Stanley to raise capital for hedge fund clients

A street sign stands near the Morgan Stanley worldwide headquarters building in New York May 8, 2009.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley (MS.N) 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 (CSGN.VX), 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.