The Blackstone Group has announced that Aaron Nieman will head Blackstone Altius Advisors, a new event-driven strategy focusing on opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region and managed by an investment team based in Hong Kong as well as professionals in Tokyo, Mumbai and New York.

Nieman has joined Blackstone as a senior managing director from SAC Capital Management, the USD14bn alternative investment business founded in 1992 by Steven A. Cohen, where he was a managing director in the Canvas Capital Management division. At SAC, he was instrumental in creating an investment team responsible for merger arbitrage and event-driven investments in the Asia-Pacific region.

Previously Nieman was largely responsible for building Lehman Brothers' Tokyo-based global trading strategies division (formerly the risk arbitrage division), focusing on Asia-Pacific investments. He began his career with Lehman in New York.

'Aaron has a superb history of developing teams and investing in Asia,' says Blackstone Group chairman and chief executive Stephen A. Schwarzman. 'He will add greater depth and intellectual capital to Blackstone's wide range of alternative investment businesses.'

Antony Leung, chairman of Blackstone's greater China business, says: 'As Blackstone continues to aggressively seek opportunities within Asia, Aaron and his team will provide additional investment capability that will bolster our presence in the region.'

Nieman, who becomes chief investment officer of Altius Advisors, says: 'Blackstone has a superior global alternative investment platform. It also employs some of the best professionals in the industry. The synergies that exist within Blackstone's various businesses will provide us with a significant advantage investing in the Asia-Pacific markets.'

He has recruited an experienced team of investment professionals to Altius, including chief operating officer Christopher Pesce, who was previously global head of prime brokerage at Bank of America and earlier worked for Goldman Sachs in New York and Hong Kong.

Blackstone's other businesses in Asia include a corporate private equity fund, Blackstone Capital Partners, a real estate opportunity fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners, a fund of hedge funds business and two closed-ended mutual funds, the India Fund and Asia Tigers Fund.

The Blackstone Group is one of the largest independent alternative asset managers in the world with businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate opportunity funds, funds of hedge funds, mezzanine funds, senior debt funds, proprietary hedge funds and closed-end mutual funds, as well as financial advisory services including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganisation advisory and fund placement services.