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May 13 (Reuters) - Hedge fund Citadel has moved some of its core researchers out of Hong Kong, telling members of its ?global quantitative strategies team in recent months that they had to either relocate or leave the company, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Miami-based Citadel told Reuters that the moves were part of a global strategy to bring ?teams closer.
"A small number of people not just in HK ?but in other locations as well had moved to a ?different office in the past more than two years (didn't just happen ?today), so that they could be in the same location as their ?teams," Citadel told Reuters.
The Financial Times report said concerns over data security were part of the reason for relocating staff.
Refuting those claims, the company said, "In Asia, Citadel's ?Global Quantitative Strategy business has teams in HK and Singapore. We ?continue to hire QRs in both locations – if we had data security concerns, we wouldn't ?be adding more people to the existing team in HK."
Hong Kong has long established itself as a bridge between China and the rest of the world, and is a key regional hub for U.S. financial ?institutions such as ?Goldman Sachs, ?Morgan Stanley, and Jane Street.
Citadel has close to 200 staff in Hong Kong currently. A company spokesperson said ?the hedge fund has more than doubled its headcount ?in Hong ?Kong over the past four years and that it continues to hire in the city.
Citadel, founded by billionaire Ken Griffin, is one of the ?world's ?most profitable hedge funds. It had $67 billion ?of assets under management, as of April 1.
Reporting by Fabiola Arámburo in Mexico City and ?Summer Zhen in Hong Kong; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Subhranshu Sahu
