CEO of French hedge fund CFM dies in accident

PARIS, July 6 (Reuters) - Jean-Pierre Aguilar, the 49-year old co-founder of French hedge fund Capital Fund Management (CFM), died while taking part in a gliding competition over the weekend, CFM said on Monday.

"It is with great sadness that Capital Fund Management announces that its CEO and co-founder, Jean-Pierre Aguilar, tragically died in a gliding accident on Saturday, 4 July," the company said in a statement on its website.

CFM's statement added that the cause of the accident, which also resulted in the death of Aguilar's co-pilot, was being investigated.

Aguilar's death leaves CFM Chairman Jean-Philippe Bouchaud as the current head of the company.

Aguilar graduated from France's elite HEC business school and began his career in 1986 at Paris-based financial firm Legrand & Cie.

According to industry publication Hedgeweek, CFM has around $2.6 billion of assets under management.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, editing by Marcel Michelson)