Lionhart (Middle East), part of the Lionhart hedge fund management group, has received regulatory approval from the Dubai Financial Services Authority to open an office in the Dubai International Financial Centre, committing itself to the Gulf region for the long term. It will be headed by Jim Quinn, who has been working for Lionhart on a consultancy basis but now joins the staff. The new office brings the total to five world-wide, with around forty staff.

Terry Duffy, chief executive of Lionhart, said: "Our global expansion continues with the launch of our Gulf operations. We feel strongly that our track record of achieving strong, absolute, non-correlated annual returns on a consistent basis while maintaining a core commitment to preservation of investor capital fits well with the appetites of investors in the Gulf."