Hedge fund firm Magnetar Capital, which formed a Bermuda reinsurer earlier this year, said yesterday it has hired quantitative investment specialist Andrew Sterge to build a reinsurance business for the $3 billion firm.

Sterge worked at CooperNeff Group, part of French bank BNP Paribas S.A. from 1989 to 2004 and was the firm?s chairman and chief executive from 1999. He developed a quantitative equity-based trading strategy at the firm, and since 2000 had focused on investment strategies that tackle insurance risk.

He also started his own firm called AJ Sterge Investment Strategies and a team from that business joins him at Magnetar.

Magnetar, based in Evanston, Illinois, was founded in 2005 by Alec Litowitz, former global head of equities at hedge-fund giant Citadel Investment Group, and Ross Laser, former president and managing director of Glenwood Capital Partners, a hedge-fund investment firm.

The firm, which has more 50 investment professionals, started a Bermuda reinsurer called Pulsar Re earlier this year.

?Andy is a pioneer in quantitative investment strategies and has applied his analytic rigor and innovative thinking to the reinsurance market.? Litowitz said in a statement. ?I am confident Andy can build an advantaged reinsurance platform that will serve as an important part of a diversified mix for our investors.?

Under pressure to put new investment money to work, hedge funds have branched out into new areas, including reinsurance, in recent years. Citadel started its own Bermuda reinsurer CIG Re and George Soros backed Switzerland-based reinsurer Glacer Re in 2004. CooperNeff also runs a hedge fund that invests in catastrophe bonds.