JPMorgan Chase & Co. is disbanding an investment banking unit that wagers the company's money on hedge funds, alternative investment products, leveraged buyouts and real estate, according to people familiar with the plan.
The company is to close the principal investment management group's hedge fund business and its private-equity division, except for a team focused on Asia, said the people, who asked not to be named because the decision has not been publicly disclosed.
Most of the group's 150 employees are to move to other parts of the New York banking company.
JPMorgan closed its global proprietary trading unit in November and moved some of the employees to other desks.
Bob Case, the head of principal investments at JPMorgan Chase, may be given another post, according to the people. A message left for Case was not immediately returned. Tasha Pelio, a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase, declined to comment.
