Dai and Cindy Huang, DH & YZ's chief operating officer, based in its head office in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, declined to comment on the new company.

Mainland asset management companies are enlisting former senior investment bankers and fund managers who have worked for global hedge funds to help drive their international expansions.

China Cinda Asset Management hired Liu Jialin, a former co-head of Morgan Stanley's sales and trading division in Asia, in 2011 to start an Asia macro fund.

DH & YZ, also known as Zhejiang Dunhe, trades commodities, equities, foreign exchange and bonds, the firm's website says. The company, which runs lightly regulated funds for wealthy individuals in the country, said it was seeking to become a major Chinese hedge fund platform.

Ye parlayed a 100,000 yuan (HK$126,000) investment into a five billion yuan fortune over the five years to 2008, according to an article in Shanghai-based published in December.

He was estimated to have a net worth of 10 billion yuan last year, according to the report.

The Dunhe group of companies has eight billion yuan of proprietary capital, according to information posted on the website of Dunhe Venture Capital, its unit.

Of the total, two billion yuan is invested in publicly traded securities, a further three billion yuan in futures and other financial derivatives, and one billion yuan in venture capital, it said.

Dai, who joined Soros Fund Management in 2001, left late last year after the New York-based company returned client capital in 2011 to become a family office. It oversaw about US$24 billion earlier this year.

He was one of the first senior managers sent by Soros Fund Management in 2010 to open a Hong Kong office.