Soros-Backed Hedge Fund Starts EM Pool as Assets Surge
Soros-Backed Hedge Fund Starts EM Pool as Assets Said to Surge
(Bloomberg) -- Glen Point Capital LLP, a London-based hedge-fund firm that counts billionaire George Soros among its investors, has started a new strategy to target trading opportunities in emerging-market debt.
The Glen Point Emerging Markets Debt Fund started trading in March with about $230 million in initial capital from one of its existing investors and is currently raising additional money, according to an investor document seen by Bloomberg News. The strategy will bet on sovereign debt and be managed by Glen Point’s head of credit strategy and partner Rodrigo da Fonseca and head of research Sean Shepley, the document shows.
A spokesman for the investment firm declined to comment.
Investors are returning to hedge funds this year, allocating $22 billion in the first two months of 2018, according to data from eVestment. Half of those inflows went to macro strategies that are expected to benefit from a rising interest-rate environment sparking market volatility.
Hedge funds offering exposure to the Asia-Pacific region and emerging markets are investors’ preferred strategies this year, according to a survey released by Credit Suisse Group AG in March.
Macro funds have declined 0.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to data compiled by Eurekahedge. Glen Point’s flagship macro fund returned 22 percent last year. That compares with a gain of 3.7 percent for the average macro fund, the data show.
The investment firm was started by former BlueBay Asset Management money managers Neil Phillips and Jonathan Fayman in 2015. The firm’s assets have surged to about $3.5 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, to become one of the largest hedge fund startups in Europe in recent years. It employs 37 people and hired former BlueBay money manager Steven Murphy this month.
--With assistance from Saijel Kishan
To contact the reporter on this story: Nishant Kumar in London at nkumar173@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell
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