Luqman Arnold, the former chief executive of Abbey, the UK bank owned by Spain's Grupo Santander, has hired seven senior staff as he prepares to launch a hedge fund.

According to bankers, Arnold is looking to raise up to £750m (€1.1bn) for the fund, which will be targeted at investments in the financial services sector. The firm, named Olivant after a musical horn from the French legends of Charlemagne, has offices in London's West End and Singapore. Arnold has teamed up with Alan Morgan, a former executive at consultancy McKinsey, and Kirk Stephenson, former managing director at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, in the venture. Arnold has hired Brian Kearns, a former co-head of distressed debt at Dresdner Kleinwort, and Peter Strafford, a financial services investment banker from UBS, as partners. Edward Bang has been appointed as head of the fund's Asian operations, while Jean-Louis Le Mee joins as a partner in the same unit. Both join from the Singapore office of York Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund with more than $8bn (€6.3bn) under management. Terry Watkins, a founding member and head of investor relations at Elgin Capital, a London-based hedge fund, has been appointed head of investor relations. She previously worked in European debt capital markets at Lehman Brothers and Dresdner Kleinwort. Olivant claims on its website that profit generation will be "more dependent on strategic, operational and networking skills and experience than on leverage". The hedge fund will invest in listed and unlisted companies in developed and emerging markets in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. UBS is understood to have been appointed as prime broker for Olivant.