Incapture readies hedge fund, eyes Asia: sources
US-based Incapture Investments is readying a multi-asset-class, long/short, systematic hedge fund called Alpha Capture and considering building out a presence in Asia Pacific, according to sources.
It is thought that the firm is considering putting portfolio managers, researchers and technology specialists in Asia Pacific at some point, most likely in Sydney as the regional hub. Hong Kong and Singapore are thought to be other potential future locations for on-the-ground staff.
The hedge strategy will invest across the globe in every market in physical and derivative securities, say sources, and it may launch soon as the second half of 2014.
AsianInvestor understands that Incapture may be considering launching other types of investment strategies in the future. The firm declined to comment for this article.
Incapture Investments – set up by ex-Barclays Global Investors (BGI) executives in mid-2013 – has hired Will Britten as chief operating officer. A former Credit Suisse executive, he relocated last month to San Francisco from Sydney to take up the post.
Britten is understood to have already been involved in Incapture's business through the firm's relationship with Sydney-based investment management and consulting firm Akindred. Sources say Incapture has retained the partnership it started with the company in September and intends to develop it further.
Before Britten helped set up Akindred, he was Asia-Pacific head of distribution for Credit Suisse's asset management arm. He left when the bank folded that unit into its private wealth division in late 2012.
Britten's former Credit Suisse colleague, Tom Wyse, is based in Sydney with Akindred to help Incapture develop its business in Asia Pacific, say sources. Wyse had run Credit Suisse’s Asia-Pacific transition management business from April 2010 before leaving in late 2012 amid a downturn for transition services in the region.
Britten and Wyse were based in Sydney while at Credit Suisse, and after leaving the Swiss bank in late 2012 they set up Akindred in the same city.
Incapture Investment has a sister company, Incapture Technologies. The group was founded by BGI’s former global head of fixed income, Peter Knez, and other alumni from the firm who left after the fund house merged with BlackRock in 2010.
Alan Moore, another BGI alumnus, is chief technology officer at Incapture Technologies. The division has built Rapture, an enterprise-wide platform for developing and integrating applications. Incapture Investments uses Rapture for its investment process.