Gennaro Pucci, formerly head of trading at credit manager Credaris, has started a $100 million hedge fund that will trade mostly European corporate debt, credit derivatives and asset-backed securities.

Christian Evans and Rachel Barnard, both formerly at UBS, will help manage the Matrix-PVE Global Credit Fund from London as a joint-venture with Matrix Group.

As reported by WealthBriefing and other publications recently, a number of new hedge funds, some of which are structured inside UCITS III wrappers, have been launched in recent months. Hedge fund performance has been strong in 2009 so far, repairing some of the damage inflicted by the heavy losses in the previous year.

Mr Pucci left Credaris, a London-based credit specialist asset management firm that manages more than $1 billion in credit and derivatives, in April.

Matrix, which manages about $4 billion, already helps run three equity hedge funds.