Jersey-based Altis Partners, the Channel Island’s first ever CTA, has now become the first Jersey hedge fund to open an office in Hong Kong. Altis Partners (Asia) Ltd officially opened last week, a move which Zhaoan Li (pictured), Head of Greater China Business Development for Jersey Finance (who’s office opened last year in Hong Kong), said demonstrated “a growing tie between Hong Kong and Jersey”. Managing USD1.5billion in client assets, Altis Partners trades more than 160 liquid futures markets worldwide using algorithms, built around detailed forecasting and risk management techniques, to identify positions. The trading system is highly diversified, allowing Altis to generate returns in any futures market – commodities, currencies, indices, bonds and equities. Year-to-date the fund is up around 10 per cent, according to Robin Duxfield, COO of AP(A) Ltd. Commenting on the opening of the Hong Kong office, Duxfield told Hedgeweek that its timing was partly related to the firm’s next growth phase. “The USD1.5billion Altis manages in client assets is split pretty evenly between the US and Europe so head office really wanted to expand the Asia client base,” said Duxfield. “Also, we’re trading markets globally and had no representation in Asia meaning people were having to work nightshifts.”
Hong Kong was chosen over Singapore due to having a slightly stronger regulatory environment. Duxfield agreed that having a team on the ground, whilst important in terms of developing new relationships, would also improve trade execution efficiency across markets in Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. “We’re better able to research local markets, reconciliation issues can be captured earlier, and it also means our Hong Kong team can talk to Asian brokers on a real-time basis,” explained Duxfield. The team currently consists of six people: Duxfield as COO, two traders, a marketing director, software developer and an office manager.