Polymer Capital Management has brought on Chiga Murayama, a senior portfolio manager previously with BlueCrest Capital Management, following his departure after market turbulence in August caused significant losses among yen rates traders, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Murayama has joined Polymer as a Portfolio Manager in Singapore, with his Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) license becoming active this week, according to the regulator’s website. Both Murayama and Polymer declined to comment on the hiring.
Polymer, traditionally focused on Asia-Pacific equities, is diversifying into macro trading — a strategy that tracks broad trends across asset classes such as equities, bonds, currencies, and commodities, in a move that aligns with industry trends where multi-strategy firms including Millennium Management have leveraged diversification to manage volatility and enhance returns.
Earlier this year, Polymer recruited Rohan Kohli from Brevan Howard Asset Management and Geo Tan from Pinpoint Asset Management as macro portfolio managers, signalling its commitment to expanding its macro capabilities.
Led by Angus Wai, former Asia head of Point72 Asset Management, Polymer manages approximately $4.2bn in assets as of early October. The Hong Kong-based firm is majority-owned by PAG, one of Asia’s largest alternative asset managers, which itself has backing from a Blackstone fund.
Murayama’s career includes leading JGB trading at Barclays Japan and heading fixed-income trading at BNP Paribas in Japan before joining BlueCrest in 2018.
His departure from BlueCrest followed the closure of his trading pod after August’s dramatic market swings which stemmed from the unwinding of the yen carry trade, leading to a $1.1tn selloff in Japanese stocks and a rush to government bonds.
