Cohen’s Point72 to open Warsaw office for some back office teams

(C) Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Steven Cohen, Chairman and CEO of Point72 Asset Management, speaks at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON(Reuters) – Billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management is opening the $16.2 billion firm’s latest satellite location in Warsaw and moving some back office operations to lower-cost Poland.

Point72, based in Stamford, Connecticut with 1,500 employees around the world, expects to hire 150 people in Warsaw by the end of 2021.

Some jobs will be moved to Poland from the United States, but the move would impact less than 5% of the workforce, a Point72 spokeswoman said.

Point72 plans to build technology, finance and operations teams in Poland, capitalizing on the country’s highly educated workforce and geographic location. The firm, which employs teams of traders to invest in stocks, bonds and other instruments, does not expect to move investment professionals to Poland.

“The Warsaw office will be instrumental in supporting the firm’s continued strategic growth and strengthening our investment services functions,” the spokeswoman said.

Point72 has 10 offices, including New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Palo Alto, San Francisco and its Stamford headquarters.

Many financial services firms, including hedge funds, have scaled back on real estate recently to cut costs as investors are especially sensitive to high fees.

Rafa Lopez Espinosa, Point72’s U.S.-based global head of strategy, will move to Poland where he will continue in his current role and lead the local office.

Point72 grew out of Cohen’s hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors when the firm resumed managing money for clients other than Cohen’s family members in 2018. The firm was banned from serving outside clients for a time after it pleaded guilty plea to securities fraud charges.

Assets have swelled from $11 billion in 2018, when the firm was managing only Cohen’s private fortune, to $16.2 billion now. In the first half of 2020, the firm returned 4%.