Cardinal Asset Management, the alternative asset investment firm based in London and Dublin, has appointed Mr Philip Wale to launch a multi-strategy equity hedge fund.

Mr Wale was formerly global head of proprietary trading at Commerzbank and previously worked at Goldman Sachs as head of European Equity Trading.

Cardinal Asset Management was launched in March to focus on alternative asset investment products and services - mainly related to hedge funds - for the institutional market. Its founders were Mr Nigel McDermott, a former director of Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU and Mr Nick Corcoran, who previously worked with Zurich Capital Markets.

The company says it aims to develop a specialism in hedge fund management and says it intends "to announce further senior appointments" to augment Mr Wale in the development of the multi-strategy equity hedge fund. The fund is expected to have an initial capacity of $500 million (€414 million).

Cardinal is the exclusive provider of hedge funds products to ISIS Asset Management, one the of UK's biggest asset managers.