London-listed investment fund Polar Capital Partners is relocating its Eastern European equities office from Moscow to Kiev and intends to pump half a billion dollars into Ukraine. Anton Khmelnitski, director of Polar Capital Columbus fund will lead the firm's new Eastern Europe equities headquarters in Kiev. Mr Khmelnitski joined Polar in April 2006 after more than eight years covering Eastern Europe initially at Pictet & Cie as a fund manager responsible for Eastern Europe and the oil sector for global emerging markets. He spent the past three years as head of equities at Kazimir Partners in Moscow. "We are opening a new office, recruiting staff and launching a new fund, which will invest in public and private companies, both beginners and those at the IPO level," Khmelnitski, told the Kiev Post. Polar Capital Partners, which has a fund of $220 million dedicated to Ukraine and Russia, has already invested about $90 million into Ukrainian companies. Polar will seek to invest into Ukrainian companies buying shares in public firms and offer cash to businesses in return for equity. Other equity groups based in Moscow have launched Kiev offices in recent years, but Polar is among the biggest to relocate an Eastern European equities branch to Ukraine's capital. Polar's new priorities in Ukraine will be investments into domestic food companies, pharmaceuticals, high-tech firms and insurance. The Polar group has about $4 billion in funds under management.