FSL launches new Korean long/short equity fund

Singapore-based alternatives strategy manager Fairfield Straits Lion has launched its fifth fund since August 2005, the Fairfield Korean Equity Fund. The fund is sub-advised by Cosmo Investment Management, based in Seoul, Korea.

Cosmo was established in 1999 and today manages $1.1 billion in assets. Its Founder and CIO is Kevin Choi, who began the firm after working as a fund manager at Seoul Asset Management and Hyundai Asset Management (since acquired by Prudential Asset Management).

Fairfield Korea is a long/short fund, which spotlights small and mid-sized Korean companies with market capitalizations of less than $1 billion. Larger capitalization stocks will be included in order to smooth out portfolio volatility.

Cosmo, which employs a sixteen-member team, will use its local research capability to seek out discounted securities in the small and mid-cap sectors.

Ms. Debra Ng, FSL's Regional Business Director, described the long-term investment case of Korea as 'robust' and highlighted that its equities market is one of the cheapest in Asia on a price/earnings basis, even though Korea is the world's tenth largest economy.

FSL was incorporated in March 2004 as an Asian hedge fund management and distribution platform. It is a joint venture between Fairfield Greenwich Group, a privately-owned asset management company principally based in London, New York and Bermuda, and Singapore-domiciled Lion Capital Management, whose parent is owned by Great Eastern Holdings Ltd and Orient Holdings Private Ltd, a subsidiary of OCBC Bank.