Stark's Edds and Wilson to launch Orchard Capital

Teall Edds has confirmed to AsianInvestor that he and Stu Wilson, both senior portfolio managers for Stark Investments in Asia, are leaving the hedge fund.

Stark operates offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, and it is understood that Edds and Wilson are taking the Stark staff, premises and funds with them and will launch a new entity named Orchard Capital Partners.

At Stark Investments, Edds was involved in a number of the syndicated investment deals, which became something of a new asset class for hedge funds in Asia during 2007-2008.

Before joining the hedge fund world, Edds was a credit analyst at Credit Suisse Financial Products in New York, and then moved to Asia with CS First Boston in the late-1990s. His final role at Credit Suisse was in Singapore as director and head of credit risk management for Southern Asia Pacific. Back in those days he was the analytical protégé of Dr Hugo Banziger, now head of risk at Deutsche Bank (and some people's tip to be the next chairman of the German behemoth), and Barbara Biel.

Stu Wilson joined Stark in 1997. Before that he was part of the Asian trading team at Citadel Investment Group, where he traded Japanese warrants and convertible bonds and was responsible for Asian stock and loan financing.