This will be the first foray for Numen, which runs 1.2 billion euros (962 million pounds), into long-short equity, two sources said.

Long-short hedge funds, which bet on rising and falling share prices, are down 4.89 percent in the first two months of the year, Hedge Fund Research data showed.

Sallusti left $14.3 billion equities-focused Egerton, led by Chief Investment Officer John Armitage, in February after 16 years, a source familiar with the matter said.

Numen declined to comment when contacted by Reuters while Sallusti did not respond to requests for comment.

Numen Capital's move to hire Sallusti follows a management reshuffle in which co-founder Kushal Kumar handed over his investment duties to fellow founder Filipo Lanza.

According to the source, only two traders have ever left Egerton to launch their own funds - Luca Bechis, who left in December 2003 to launch Richmond Capital, and Nicolai Tangen, who left to start AKO Capital in 2005 which now runs $9 billion across its funds.

Numen's hedge fund was up 3.8 percent in the first 60 days of 2016 while its Ucits fund was up 0.9 percent compared with credit funds overall, which are down 2.51 percent over the same time period, HFR data showed.

(Reporting by Maiya Keidan. Editing by Jane Merriman)

By Maiya Keidan