Asia hedge fund: Agarwal for Jan launch

Barun Agarwal is planning to launch a pan-Asia multi-asset hedge fund in early Jan.

Former DKR Oasis portfolio manager Barun Agarwal is setting up Factorial Management Ltd in Hong Kong,planning to launch a pan-Asia multi-asset hedge fund in early January.

Agarwal,who left Oasis Management (Hong Kong) LLC in August,told Reuters that he was in talks with potential investors to raise capital while waiting for a licence from the market regulator to launch his Factorial Master Fund.

Oasis was previously named DKR Oasis (Hong Kong) LLC.

He declined to disclose the start-up capital,but two sources familiar with the launch plan said Factorial had initial commitments worth up to $25 million for the hedge fund.

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We are talking to investors as we speak and we will have a better feel of the launch size in mid-December,Agarwal said. We have been approached by various reputable investors and we are going to engage with them to see if we can increase the initial assets under management.

He did not disclose the capacity of the fund,but said the strategy at DKR Oasis managed sizable capital.

Agarwal worked with star hedge fund manager Seth Fischer,who once managed $3.3 billion for DKR Soundshore Oasis Fund.

My strategy is not going to change. I am going to do exactly what I was doing in my previous role,Agarwal said.

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Agarwal started his career managing fixed-income and money market assets for India’s ICICI Bank Ltd and later moved to the equity research department at Solomon Smith Barney. He worked at JP Morgan Chase & Co before joining DKR Oasis in 2004.

The fund executive said he would run a largely hedged portfolio and bet across asset classes in Asia.

In Asia,you do have situations where some parts of the capital structure may not be priced fairly with respect to other parts for the same underlying company,he said.

Agarwal said he was starting with four people,including two investment professionals,and planned to build an institutional quality set-up.

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Factorial has appointed Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America Corp as prime brokers.

Agarwal joins a series of former DKR Oasis executives to launch their own hedge fund.

Two former DKR Oasis analysts,Frederic Eechaute and Stephen Good,moved out to set up Sydney-based Instinct Capital in 2009. Instinct Capital focuses on Japan.

James Tu,a co-founder of Hong Kong-based hedge fund Nine Masts,and Edward McCreight and Nasrine Ghozali,who co-founded Silver Tree,also worked at DKR Oasis. Both hedge funds started last year in Hong Kong.