One of the most important partners at Marshall Wace, who left the hedge fund giant almost a year ago, has re-emerged to launch a new long/short European equities portfolio that will likely be one of the most closely watched start-ups of this year.

Daoud Zekrya, who was jointly responsible for running Marshall Wace's Core fund, one of two strategies that makes up the $4bn (€2.7bn) firm's European long/short flagship Eureka portfolio, has set up Belay Partners with Harry Tyser, who previously ran New Star's Firefly hedge fund.