Some of Asia’s newer hedge funds were a magnet for investors last year.
The assets of Oryza Capital and Pine River China Fund have expanded at least eight times since the funds started in the second half of 2013. BosValen Asset Management, Pleiad Investment Advisors and Guard Capital Management were among the 2014 startups that raised hundreds of millions of dollars each within a few months.
They stood out in a region where, on average, it takes almost two years for a hedge fund’s assets to increase to $250 million from $50 million, according to Singapore-based Eurekahedge Pte. Investors turned their attention to younger funds -- and fresh entrants in some cases -- as the regional industry beat global peers’ performance for a third straight year and some of bigger managers in Asia stopped accepting money after reaching capacity.
“There’s a supply of money coming back to Asia and that’s unprecedented,” said Myo Schollum, Asia-Pacific head of prime services coverage at Credit Suisse Group AG in Hong Kong. “There are six to eight hedge funds that launched with day-one capital in excess of $250 million. That’s previously unheard of in Asia.”
$1 Billion Mark
Oryza, the first Asia fund of Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, told investors in June it would stop taking additional money after it raised about $1 billion. Its Asia-focused equity long-short fund started in September 2013 with initial capital of $80 million.
Pine River China Fund expanded assets to about $850 million by the start of this year, from the $100 million it started with in October 2013, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the figures aren’t public.
BFAM Partners (Hong Kong), spun off from Nomura Holdings Inc. in April 2012, increased assets to more than $1 billion from $323 million at the start of 2014, according to a person familiar with the fund.
Among newcomers, Pleiad is nearing $500 million in assets after starting the fund on Sept. 1 with just over $150 million, said a person familiar with the matter. Guard, which began with just under $50 million on Aug. 1, has grown to $292 million, another person said. BosValen has raised about $300 million since its early November inception.
Slow Rebound