Singapore-based Aralian Capital successfully has launched a $300m systematic macro fund after attracting an Asia-based institution as an anchor investor.

The Aralian Fund is run by Panich Prompat, the former portfolio manager at Brummer-owned Nektar Asset Management in Singapore. Prompat named the fund after his three young children, Aaron, Alisa and Ana, with their names forming the acronym.

In a conversation with AsiaHedge, Prompat declined to identify the anchor investor but said it was “a big-ticket” investor based in Asia.

Prompat and his friends also have money in the fund bringing the total AuM to $310m by late October.

The fund, which is focused on FX and rates, launched in August and is one of the largest macro fund offerings to come out of Asia this year.

In the first two months, the fund weathered the significant turbulence in the macro environment triggered by rising US rates and sell-offs across emerging markets and gained about 1% mostly from bets in Chinese and Indian currencies and on US rates.

The portfolio is focused on key emerging markets, such as China, India, Korea, ASEAN, and developed countries such as Japan and Australia.

“It has been a tough environment, but I’ve prepared this fund for more than year, hiring the right people and onboarding the right service providers,” according to Pomprat, adding that most members of the investing team worked with him before at the buyside desk in Morgan Stanley.

“The team approaches the market with a strong fundamental perspective but use quantitative methods to detect market dislocations and structure our trades,” says Prompat.

Before he joined Nektar five years ago, Prompat was a top FX and rates trader at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong.

Aralian currently has six people in its team but is looking to hire two more before the end of the year, with one of the hires expected to join next month.

Prompat said Aralian’s COO previously worked at another large macro fund in the region and plans to promote him to the CEO post in a year or two, so Prompat can focus on trading and investing.

The firm has two prime brokers, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, with the latter focused on structuring solutions for multi-layered trades on rates and currencies. The firm has seven ISDA counterparties for its derivatives trades.

Singapore-based macro Aralian Capital launches with $300m on AsiaHedge.