Qube to Enter US After Building $30 Billion Hedge Fund Giant
In roughly seven years, Qube Research & Technologies has grown into a hedge fund powerhouse without setting foot in the US — the industry’s mecca. That’s about to change.
London-based QRT is preparing to open an office in Houston focused on commodities, which will eventually include physical trading, according to people with knowledge of the matter. QRT has hired Naveen Arora, the co-head of US power trading at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., to help oversee the buildout, the people said.
All other trading activities will continue from QRT’s global outposts spanning from Sydney to Hong Kong and Dubai to Aarhus, Denmark, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.
While QRT has been trading US assets, it hasn’t seen a need to open an office there until now, and it isn’t clear what prompted the move. A representative for the hedge fund declined to comment. Goldman also declined to comment.
Commodities have become a focus for big hedge funds in recent years, with natural gas and power accounting for a vast majority of the profits. Demand for traders who specialize in those areas has soared as volatility and extreme weather events create dislocations that hedge funds can profit from. Projected increases in demand for electricity to fuel artificial intelligence data centers has only added to interest in the sector.
The US is home to more than 6,800 fund managers, and firms based there oversee 81% of industrywide assets, according to estimates by Preqin. The country also offers hedge funds the vastest pool of talent and an unrivaled depth in trading that forms the backbone of the $4.9 trillion industry.
