Quant hedge fund firm Qube is expanding its investment platform by establishing its first internally managed discretionary equity portfolio management team, marking a significant step beyond its traditional quantitative investing approach, according top a report by Business Insider.

The report cites unnamed people familiar with the firm's plans, the London-headquartered manager is recruiting portfolio managers to run long and short equity strategies across a range of industry sectors. The new team will report to investor Naveen Baid and is expected to operate with a multi-manager structure, giving individual portfolio managers responsibility for managing their own books and investment decisions.

The initiative represents another stage in Qube's rapid evolution as the firm continues to broaden its investment capabilities. The manager is understood to oversee approximately $50bn in assets, having experienced substantial growth over the past two years.

The new discretionary platform differs from an earlier expansion announced last year, when Qube established a team of sector-focused equity analysts led by former Balyasny executive Stephen Irvine. That unit generates investment ideas which are combined into a centralised portfolio, rather than allowing individual managers to run independent strategies.

By contrast, the latest initiative is designed to give portfolio managers direct control over their own long and short portfolios, mirroring the operating model used by many established multi-manager hedge funds.

The move reflects a wider trend among large systematic investment firms that are increasingly complementing quantitative strategies with discretionary investment teams. Several leading quantitative managers have broadened their offerings in recent years by adding fundamental equity, macro and alternative investment capabilities alongside their algorithmic trading businesses.

Qube has also built exposure to discretionary investing through external allocations to fundamental equity managers, making the launch of an in-house portfolio management platform a natural extension of its existing investment approach.

The firm declined to comment on the reported expansion plans.