Mehmet Dalman, head of investment banking at Commerzbank, plans to launch an incubator fund in September, staffed by its proprietary traders.

This move comes as an answer to the rumours about Dalman leaving Commerzbank to set up his own hedge fund business.

Dalman already sits on the board of Tosca, the USD 1.4 billion hedge fund run by Martin Hughes, a former colleague at Credit Lyonnais.

Dalman, who built up Commerzbank Securities, said the plan for the fund is to start small with USD 10 million to USD 20 million, and if successful, it will be turned into an independent hedge fund run by its managers.

Commerzbank will take a percentage for raising capital and if it spins off the business, the bank could take 10% to 15% of the equity.

Commerzbank is already associated with two fund of funds groups. It raises money for the USD 2 billion unleveraged Comas funds and for the leveraged USD 300 million Cedar fund, which was spun out of the German bank with the parent retaining an equity interest.