{"id":14222,"date":"2012-10-08T18:10:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T18:10:30","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-10-08T18:10:30","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T18:10:30","slug":"Lehman-execs-launch-hedge-fund-to-bet-on-Asia-M-A","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14222","title":{"rendered":"Lehman execs launch hedge fund to bet on Asia M&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hong Kong-based Ardon Maroon Fund Management, run by former Wall Street bank executives, has launched an Asia-focused hedge fund with seed capital from a European family office, a company document showed, aiming to profit from events such as mergers and restructurings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The launch comes as Asian funds that focus on mergers and activities such as spin-offs or bankruptcies, also called event-driven funds, have outperformed so far in 2012, rising 5 percent on average against the 3.7 percent gain overall for Asian hedge funds, data from industry tracker Eurekahedge showed.<\/p>\n

Frank Dominick, formerly of Morgan Stanley (MS.N), and Charles Woo, who worked at Lehman Brothers, have started trading with $26.5 million, according to the document which was seen by Reuters. They have hired Mirza Rahman as chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

Rahman earlier held the COO role at Artradis, which was once Singapore’s biggest hedge fund with peak assets of $4.9 billion but wound up in 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maroon Capital Asia, the investment vehicle of European family office Maroon, has provided seed capital worth $25 million to the fund and working capital to support the business.<\/strong> Some former investors, former employers and new investors have made additional commitments, the document showed.<\/p>\n

James O’Hanlon, a former managing director at Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) in Japan, has been hired by Ardon as a portfolio manager<\/strong>, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The firm has seven employees in all.<\/p>\n

The Ardon Asia Fund will invest primarily in Hong Kong, China, Korea, Australia, Singapore, and Japan and takes opportunistic bets in India, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Event-driven funds trade in stocks, bonds, convertibles and other types of securities. Announced mergers and acquisitions deals in Asia-Pacific ex-Japan for the third quarter of 2012 amounted to around $136 billion, down about 8 percent from the same quarter of the previous year, according to preliminary data from Thomson Reuters.<\/p>\n

Ardon had previously joined hands with New York-based Pulse Capital Partners to launch the fund in July last year with Pulse expected to arrange up to $50 million in initial capital.<\/strong> It was not immediately clear what happened to that plan.<\/p>\n

Woo declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Source Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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