American International Group has bought a stake in London-based hedge fund manager Aspect Capital. The derivatives unit of insurance gian...

American International Group has bought a stake in London-based hedge fund manager Aspect Capital. The derivatives unit of insurance giant, AIG Financial Products, has purchased 4.3 per cent of Aspect and has an option on a further 8 per cent. Terms of the deal were nto disclosed. AIG has also invested $75 million in Aspect funds and said that it may allocate a further $125 million in seed capital for Aspect. Aspect was founded in 1997 by Anthony Todd, Eugene Lambert, Martin Lueck and Michael Adam. They were originally at AHL, a systematic hedge-fund firm now part of UK-listed Man Group. Joe Cassano, president of AIG Financial Products, suggested the company could do similar deals in the future. "AIG-FP's strong stable of products and services in the hedge-fund sector and investment portfolio in excess of $50 billion position us well to be strategic partners for alternative investment firms of Aspect's calibre in the future," he said in a statement.