Gordian Capital has announced the multi-country launch of GSB Equity Long Short Fund managed by Geoffrey Bennett of GSB Capital, LLC in San Francisco.
The Fund invests in high concentration, high conviction large and mid- cap Japanese equities. The market neutral strategy has been employed managing separately managed accounts and has a five-year track record. Capacity in the strategy is limited to USD650 million. In an industry-first, a leading Japanese corporate pension fund is seeding the Fund via a discretionary investment mandate awarded to Gordian Capital Japan.
Bennett, the Fund’s Founder and Portfolio Manager has focused on the Japanese markets since 1992 and has been a hedge fund manager since 1999. Since 2005, he has served as the manager of GSB Capital, LLC, a Registered Investment Adviser specialising in Japanese equity markets. From 1999 to 2005, Bennett served as the principal and portfolio manager of Windham Pacific, LLC, where he also managed a pan-Asian long/short fund with a market- neutral equity strategy. From 2005 to 2008, Bennett served as Portfolio Manager for the Phoenix Japan Fund. Starting in 2009, Mr. Bennett began to manage Japanese equity long short separately managed accounts, primarily for US investors. The evolution of his trading methodology crystallised in an approach used since 2016. The same strategy, which has generated annual compound returns over 20 per cent, limited drawdowns, and a Sharpe Ratio in excess of 3.0, will be implemented for the Fund.
Before starting his career as a hedge fund manager in 1998, Bennett was employed for seven years by ING Barings Securities, where he worked as an analyst and trader. Currently based in San Francisco, Bennett has also worked in New York, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.
Bennett holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Kenyon College and a Masters of International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Bennet says: “Japan has long been an overlooked stock market and as result is a rich source of alpha opportunities. I am particularly pleased to be able to make available my investment strategy to a wide range of global institutional investors, who for many years have asked me to launch a comingled fund. Making this possible is a unique multi-jurisdiction fund solution provided by Gordian Capital that allows me to focus singularly on research, portfolio construction and trading”
As part of the Fund’s launch, GSB Japan Equity Long Short Fund will be leveraging Gordian Capital’s Fund Platform and 16 years of expertise to provide operational, regulatory, and compliance support for the Fund. Established in 2004 by capital markets professionals and alternatives industry veterans active in Asia since the 1980s, Gordian Capital is Asia’s leading institutional quality, independent fund platform specialist, currently managing USD 7 billion. Initially launching its first operating subsidiary in Singapore in 2005, the group now has a regulated presence in Singapore, Japan, and Australia, is registered with India’s SEBI (Category 1 FPI) and China’s CSRC (QFII) and both its Singapore and Tokyo operations are registered with the U.S. SEC as Registered Investment Advisers.
“We are delighted to work with Geoff and look forward to supporting him and the Fund’s growth,” says Mark Voumard, CEO of Gordian Capital Singapore Pte Ltd. “We are especially excited to be working with Geoff in a unique multi-country launch for a fund that is expected to have wide global-investor appeal.”
Alvaro Tamura, CEO of Gordian Capital Japan, a fully regulated Discretionary Investment Management license holder and registered SEC investment adviser, adds: “We are pleased to, in an industry first, have played a leading role in the launch of the new fund by arranging a seed investment from a leading Japanese pension fund.”
Gordian Capital’s Fund Platform currently offered in both Singapore and Tokyo is designed for experienced investment professionals. Gordian provides a regulated, physical, and operational fund infrastructure wherein it handles the business and operational management of each fund, allowing the investment professionals on their platform to concentrate on investing.
The Fund’s service providers include Goldman Sachs as prime broker, SS&C Fund Services as fund administrator, Ernst & Young Limited as auditor/tax advisor, with Walkers (Cayman), Day Pitney LLP (US), Anderson Mori & Tomotsune (Japan) and CNPLaw LLP (Singapore) acting as legal counsel and Ogier Global Trustee (Cayman) Limited as trustee of a feeder fund.
