New fund company seeks hedge fund managers

Two Hong Kong fund management veterans are founding a company, Peak Capital, that aims to create a traditional fund management structure for hedge fund managers. Simon Powell and Tim Kay, who have worked in the industry for over a decade, are the principals behind Peak Capital, which they are currently registering with Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission.

Powell, who will be Peak's director of business development, recently left Skandia Global Funds, where he had promoted its multi-manager product in Asia until the Swedish firm succumbed to scandal in Europe. Kay, who will be Peak's COO, has run MSCI's Asian operations, as well as headed up BNP Paribas Asset Management's regional business.

The two are now negotiating with potential hedge fund managers. Their plan is to handle capital raising and company operations, and allow the hedge fund managers to concentrate on portfolio management.

"We've seen many examples in Asia of absolute return start-up managers who were preoccupied with trying to raise money and had no time for the portfolio, and therefore whose performance suffered," Powell says.

The company's relationship and remuneration agreements with hedge fund managers is flexible, to fit the degree of closeness and structure that a manager would like, Powell says. Peak Capital is still deciding on what kind of range of hedge fund strategies it would like to offer.

It intends to raise capital from both Asian and European sources. There is a European strategic investor whom Powell declined to name that can help provide access to investors in the West.