AHL, a hedge fund that at its height held assets of $28bn and contributed the majority of performance fees at Man Group, is struggling to regain momentum and find the right structure for the large number of hires it made.

The company, one of the pioneers of trading with complex computer algorithms, suffered a 16.9% loss in 2009 and has seen patchy performance since. Early on in the financial crisis, AHL took advantage of the downturn to pick up staff from rivals and investment banks. But the more than three-fold increase in its total headcount in the past six years, to 142, has presented the management team with challenges.