Blue Swell, the hedge fund established by former Point 72 portfolio manager Tomofumi Oda, launched its flagship market-neutral Japan-focused fund last month with $200m in assets.
Sources told AsiaHedge that the Singapore based long/short Japan equity strategy delivered a positive performance in its first month. Blue Swell has already received firm commitments from investors around the globe that will bring firm-wide AUM to $500m to $600m by the end of the year, the sources added.
The spin-out received support from SAC Advisors/Point72 founder Steve Cohen who provided some of the seed money. The additional inflows will come in various tranches in the months ahead, according to sources familiar with Blue Swell.
Besides the commingled Cayman-registered fund the group also runs segregated accounts running the same strategy.
The Singapore-based manager is considered one of the most significant hedge fund start-ups from Asia this year.
A number of allocators that AsiaHedge spoke with recently named it among the few Asia-based funds to watch out for next year.
While he was at SAC, Oda tracked a relative robust performance under his market-neutral strategy delivering an annualized return of at least 15% every year. The Blue Swell team has grown to a total of eight people including COO Colin Siew who was former head of the SAC Advisors/Point 72 Asset Management office in Singapore.
Blue Swell’s prime brokers include Morgan Stanley, UBS and Credit Suisse while Citco is in-charge of fund administration.
Blue Swell launches $200m Japan-focused market neutral fund on AsiaHedge.