Australian fund manager Tribeca Investment Partners is preparing a credit fund focused on Asia.

The firm is partnering with Singapore-based Vanda Securities, a macro research and consulting outfit, to launch in July the vehicle run by John Stover, a former portfolio manager at Farallon Capital.

The multi-strat credit fund will invest mostly in liquid credits including bonds and loans but also plans to gain exposure to less liquid assets such as private and distressed credits if opportunities arise.

The strategy will be managed from Singapore and has already obtained a $50m seed capital from a Singapore family office and targets to grow to at least $500m size before soft-closing to new investors.

While Tribeca declined to identify the prominent Singapore family office it said the group has a track record of backing early stage hedge funds.

Fund manager, Stover, worked for twelve years at Farallon with Ray Zage, the legendary investor who is CEO and founder of Farallon Capital Management’s operation in Asia.

Ben Cleary, the CEO of Tribeca Investment Partners Singapore said his team is very excited to work with Stover, who he said shares a similar fundamental-based investment approach and has demonstrated the ability to capture returns from Asian credit throughout cycles.

While at Farallon, he invested capital across a range of core strategies including credit, direct investments and equity long short with a focus on capital-intensive sectors, including metals & mining, energy and industrials.

Tribeca currently manages $1.7bn across a suite of actively managed long-only and alternative investment strategies focused on Australian and global equities and credit.

The group launched in May last year a $100m private credit fund – the Tribeca Global Natural Resources Credit Fund run by Macquarie Bank’s former global head of mining finance.

The fund delivered a 17% return in its first twelve months.

Tribeca said the new fund will leverage the respective strengths of both Tribeca and Vanda to exploit structural opportunities across the credit spectrum.

Tribeca’s head of investor relations David Bridge said this was the first time for Tribeca to partner with another firm to run a fund. Vanda will provide the needed research and analysis to guide Stover’s investing.

Jason Ambrose, the chairman of Vanda Securities, said Asian credit offers extremely attractive risk adjusted returns in terms of yield and trading opportunities, but it was an extremely nuanced sub-sector given the notable influence of developed market macro policy and capital flows.

The fund will engage Goldman Sachs as prime broker.

Tribeca eyes $500m for multi-strat credit fund on AsiaHedge.