Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has granted a new license to Pamalican Asset Management, a new hedge fund that will specialise in equity capital markets, amidst heightened scrutiny of block trades, according to a report by Bloomberg.

An announcement on the SFC's website confirmed that Jamie Goodman, a former Goldman Sachs partner, received the license on 2 August for the new fund, which is backed by Millennium Management.

Pamalican is the second equity capital markets-focused hedge fund to secure a license from the SFA since mid-July, following the approval of Pascal Guttieres’s Viridian Asset Management, allaying inducts cancers that the ongoing criminal prosecution of Segantii Capital Management might delay the approval process for new entrants in the sector.

In early May, the SFC charged Segantii Capital, its founder Simon Sadler and former trader Daniel La Rocca with insider trading related to a 2017 block trade.

US regulators have also been increasing scrutiny of the information sharing practices connected with block trades, which involve large, off-exchange sales of shares, over concerns that they may give certain clients an unfair advantage.

The SFC is also implementing new guidelines on “market sounding” – the practice of assessing investor interest in upcoming deals.