Ovata Capital Management, the Hong Kong-based hedge fund firm led by BlueCrest Capital Management alumnus James Chen, has aded four Portfolio Managers to its trading team after assets at the firm surpassed the $1.1bn mark, according to a report by Bloomberg citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter.

The new PM additions are Dan Ho, another BlueCrest alumnus, who will focus on equity relative-value investments; and Jon Lowry, who worked at Millennium Management and Elliott Management and is joining as an Asia event-driven portfolio manager.

In addition, Ovata has appointed Lucas Eshleman and Dominic Ho as traders, according to Bloomberg's source.

Chen founded Ovata in 2017 with more than $200m after spending over three years at BlueCrest as a Portfolio Manager, Head of the firm's Asia equity multi-strategy fund and Head of its Hong Kong office.

According to Bloomberg's source, Ovata, which outperformed its peers with a 10% gain last year compared with an average 2% gain for Asia-focused hedge funds, was also up 5.6% in the first four months of this year ahead of the average 3.4% gain reported by Eurekahedge.