Sabre Fund Management has distanced itself from rumours of an unnamed London-based hedge fund group being in financial trouble, at a time that regulators in the US and UK step up their campaign to seek out malicious spreading of false information.

Sabre, which makes investments for clients based on mathematical models, said on its website that it was "aware there is an email circulating...referring to a quantitative hedge fund based in (London's) Buckingham Gate that is alleged to be in difficulties".