Fortress Investment Group LLC has hired David Dredge as co-chief investment officer at its convexity strategies group, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Dredge earlier worked as a portfolio manager at Artradis Fund Management, once Singapore's biggest hedge fund manager specializing in volatility funds. Artradis, which managed peak assets of $4.9 billion, closed earlier in 2011.

Dredge, former deputy global head of local markets at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc , had joined Artradis in March 2009.

Fortress plans to launch its second hedge fund in Asia next year that will trade volatility, aiming to protect investors from tail risk, or rare and extreme events in financial markets.

An e-mail to Fortress remained unanswered.

The New York-based hedge fund and private equity firm Fortress opened an office in Singapore in October last year.

It moved Adam Levinson, co-chief investment officer of flagship global macro funds, to the city-state to lead its Asia-specific macro trading activities and launched a macro hedge fund focused on Asia in March.

(Editing by Chris Lewis)

Royal Bank of Scotland New York Investment Investment