Akira Yaku and Kentaro Ishizaki, former proprietary traders at Mizuho Securities Co., have announced plans to start a Japan-focused hedge fund. Due to launch on 1 July, the Alithion Japan Fund, backed with USD22 million (2 billion yen) from Marubeni Corp., will primarily take long and short positions in 50-100 of Japan’s top 500 companies. The Singapore-based fund will be using Deutsche Bank AG as its prime broker.
Davide Erro, ex-Ghandara CIO, has launched his new Turiya Fund with an initial investment of USD300 million. Erro intends to make it the first global hedge fund based solely in Asia. The fund will take long-short equity positions on companies with emphasis on their earnings and earnings potential.
Patrick Hugh, ex-CLSA head of hedge fund research, is to launch an Asia equity macro fund under Argun River Asset Management in Hong Kong. Penjing Asset Management has agreed to contribute USD20 million in seed capital. “Patrick’s unique capability in early identification and trade construction of market themes in the region was our main attraction,” says William Ma, Portfolio Manager at Penjing, via email. “We’ve noticed it’s more difficult for Asia focused hedge fund managers to profit from pure trading and believe this provides a fertile ground for Patrick to leverage his experience,” he further adds.
Think Alternative (TA) Research PlatformTM has been launched by Alexander Kalis and Eric Anderson, founders of Think Alternative Advisors. The platform is designed to filter through 1,200 Asian hedge funds, targeting 50-100 key funds, providing independent online research that will bridge global investors’ knowledge gap in Asian markets. “Providing greater due diligence, tapping into the Asia hedge fund growth story, and having an edge in the market with our well-developed regional network were the key reasons behind launching the platform,” explains Kalis. As Anderson neatly points out: “Everyone’s waking up to the Asia opportunity; it’s a wake up call that we’re looking to capitalize on.”
Galaxy Asset Management, a Hong Kong management company, is set to launch a multi-strategy Greater China Ucits-compliant fund in partnership with London-based asset managers, Merchant Capital. The fund will be managed by Joe Chan and Johnson Cheung, who aim to secure USD20 million in AUM at inception. Its target markets will include Hong Kong, Greater China and Taiwan. Strategically, the fund will look “to duplicate the position taking and relative value strategies used in our Galaxy China Opportunities fund,” says Cheung. “We’ll be taking long-short positions on 30-50 names when the fund hopefully launches in September.”
Mark Devonshire has just received SFC approval to launch his mCAPITAL European and Asian Special Situations Fund at the end of June. The fund will aim to provide 15%+ annualised returns by focusing on stressed, distressed, recovery and development capital, and is targeting USD200 million AUM. Devonshire’s investment team will be on the ground in London and Hong Kong. Devonshire was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.
A rally on Asia high-yield bonds is getting investors twitchy. Companies are looking to buy back callable notes on the back of cheaper funding alternatives, according to Credit Agricole CIB. Research by Morgan Stanley shows that 35% of junk bonds are callable. Mark Thurgood, head of research at Saka Capital Ltd., a Singapore-based hedge fund with a focus on liquid Asian credit was quoted on Bloomberg as saying: “We do buy bonds trading above the call price when we believe the probability of their being called is low or the yield-to-call is attractive.”
