Tybourne Capital’s Anand Said to Plan Asia-Focused Hedge Fund

(Bloomberg) -- Amar Anand, managing director and sector head at Tybourne Capital Management, is preparing to leave the Hong Kong-based money manager to start his own global Asia-focused hedge fund, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Auroville Investment Management, also based in Hong Kong, will start trading a long-short equity fund April 1, the person said, requesting anonymity because the plans haven’t been publicly disclosed. The fund will use data science to complement its fundamental research methods and target annual returns of about 15 percent, the person said.

The investments will be similar to what Anand helped make at Tybourne over the last five years, focusing on financial services, consumer companies, technology, media, telecom and industrial stocks. Ten people have been recruited to join Auroville including Terence Khoo, previously a portfolio manager at Amundi SA and hedge fund firm Sofaer Global Research, who will be the second responsible officer and head of financials, the person said. Jeb Altonaga, previously chief operating officer at Pinyin Capital Management, will take on a similar role at Auroville. 

Auroville is starting a hedge fund as the global industry is suffering its biggest shakeout since 2009, with investors fleeing amid lackluster returns. Asian equity long-short funds have returned 0.4 percent this year through October, trailing the 3.1 percent gain of all global funds, according to Eurekahedge Pte.

The fund’s managers have started speaking to prospective investors and attended Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s 17th Annual Asia Hedge Fund Symposium in Tokyo last month, the person said.

Tiger Connection

Anand joined Tybourne at its inception in 2011. He started his career at McKinsey & Co. in New York in 2000. Prior to Tybourne he worked at European buyout firm Cinven Ltd. where he helped lead Asian and European investments. He holds graduate degrees at Stanford University School of Business and London School of Economics, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Tybourne is led by Eashwar Krishnan who worked at Stephen F. Mandel Jr.’s Lone Pine Capital for 12 years. Mandel is one of many hedge fund managers dubbed Tiger cubs after working at Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management, making Auroville one of the few members of the fourth generation of managers that can trace their roots back to one of the world’s most prominent hedge funds.

Tybourne oversees about $4.4 billion of assets, including a $2.7 billion stock hedge fund and a smaller long-only fund. The hedge fund has made money every single calendar year since trading began in July 2012. Tanvir Ghani, Tybourne’s COO, declined to comment on its own funds and Anand’s plans.

--With assistance from Bei Hu To contact the reporter on this story: Nathaniel E. Baker in New York at nbaker14@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Nathaniel E. Baker