Millennium, run by Brooklyn native Englander, increased the teams working from its Mayfair offices by 10 in the past year to 30, said a person familiar with the matter. The firm hired former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive John Anderson for a new role as commodities chief based in London, the person said. Spokesmen for Point72 and New York-based Millennium, which oversees $30.4 billion, declined to comment.

Dmitry Balyasny, who manages a $9.6 billion Chicago-based fund, opened an office in the St. James’s district last year in a second foray into London. The firm plans to increase its current staffing of about 40 people, which includes 14 money managers, said spokesman Colin Lancaster, without elaborating.

It’s not only U.S. firms that are expanding. London-based Marshall Wace, which managed $12.4 billion two years ago, now oversees $20.3 billion. The firm agreed to the largest new lease by an alternative investment firm in London in the first half, for offices in Knightsbridge, according to broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Marshall Wace declined to comment.

Fear, Rokos

Growth is also coming from high-profile startups. Former Ziff Brothers Investments money manager David Fear opened a fund earlier this year with $1.5 billion, the biggest initial fund- raise in Europe since the financial crisis. Chris Rokos, a former top trader at Brevan Howard Asset Management, plans to open a firm this year.

Brevan Howard and BlueCrest Capital Management moved some staff from London to Geneva following the global financial crisis, when Britain raised income taxes for the highest earners to 50 percent from 40 percent. The U.K. government has since lowered the top tax rate to 45 percent.

A shortage of skilled fund managers might restrain growth in London, said Jason Kennedy, the head of recruitment firm Kennedy Group. “The hedge fund talent is thin, so those expanding have a smaller pool to choose from.”

Hedge funds employed about 10,000 people in the U.K. last year, said industry trade group Aima. London’s larger hedge funds manage in total about a third as much as those in New York, which oversee about $1.1 trillion, according to HedgeFund Intelligence, an industry publication.

Questions remain over performance, which has been “mixed” at some of the largest U.K. funds, said Roberto Botero, the London-based director at Sciens Capital Ltd., which invests about $1 billion in hedge funds. “We are looking to the sector to start performing again after a muted few years.”

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