The former head of Société Générale's alternative investments group has launched an investment management business.

Arié Assayag and other senior personnel from the French bank's asset management business established Nexar Capital with an investment from New York private equity house Aquiline Capital.

Assayag will be joined at Nexar by other former Société Générale Asset Management (SGAM) figures, including Eric Attias and Bernard Kalfon.

Attias will be Nexar's chief investment officer and Kalfon the company's head of volatility strategies.

Nexar will offer investment opportunities in hedge funds and funds of hedge funds. A launch statement said it would be "dedicated to generating substantial alpha for clients with different liquidity requirements".

The management company will operate from New York and Paris with over 30 employees.

Assayag's departure from SGAM was reported in April this year.

SGAM recently completed the transfer of its business to Lyxor Investment Management, also a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Société Générale Group.

The combined business had €78.7 billion assets under management as of June 30 2009.