NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sihan Shu left Paulson & Co at the end of June and is in the early stages of preparing his own hedge fund firm, according to two people familiar with the situation who requested anonymity because the information is private.
Whether or not Paulson would replace Shu, a managing director with expertise in structured financial products, was unclear. Details on the new investment firm were also not available. A spokesman for Paulson declined to comment and Shu did not respond to a request for comment.
Shu joined New York-based Paulson in 2006 after working as a young research analyst at Lehman Brothers and attending Dartmouth College.
He is best known for helping firm founder John Paulson and former deputy Paolo Pellegrini structure the famous bet against the U.S. housing market leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. A book by Gregory Zuckerman later dubbed Paulson's subprime mortgage wager “The Greatest Trade Ever” after it earned the firm more than $15 billion in 2007 and billions of dollars more in 2008.
Paulson now manages approximately $13 billion in total assets, down from more than $30 billion in 2010.