Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- SAC Capital Advisors LLC, the $14 billion hedge-fund firm run by Steven Cohen, rehired two London money managers nine months after they were let go, according to three people familiar with the situation.

David Morant and Ben Halfacre started work again this week at SAC’s London offices on Paternoster Row, the people said. The two were among at least a half-dozen traders and managers who were dismissed by SAC as hedge funds retrenched last year after the industry’s worst returns in almost two decades.

SAC, started by Cohen in 1992, is rebuilding its London office as figures from Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. show hedge funds gained 12 percent in the seven months through July. The firm hired Andrew Lubin as chief executive officer of the London unit this year, according to Financial Services Authority filings. Muhammed Yesilhark joined the firm from York Capital Management, FINalternatives reported Aug. 28.

“The message is don’t burn your bridges and leave on bad terms,” said Clayton Heijman, founder and CEO of Darwin Platform, an Amsterdam-based provider of hedge-fund services. “The hedge-fund universe is a very small community, and you never know when you may need your former employer again.”

Hedge funds are private, largely unregulated pools of capital whose managers can buy or sell any assets, bet on falling as well as rising asset prices and participate substantially in profits from money invested.

SAC managed money in Europe through a company called Walter Capital Management LLP from 2000. It bought a stake in the business in 2004 and renamed it SAC Global Investors LLP on Sept. 15, 2008, according to U.K. regulatory filings.

Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for SAC, declined to comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Cahill in London at tcahill@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 7, 2009 19:01 EDT