Hong Kong hedge fund ActusRay more than doubles assets

Sun Hung Kai & Co

30/04/2024 02:44

HONG KONG, April 30 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-based ActusRay
Partners, a hedge fund backed by the city's investment giant Sun
Hung Kai & Co  0086.HK , has more than doubled its assets to
over $700 million since the start of 2023, even as many of its
peers struggled.
    Its newly launched Asia-focused equity fund notched a 13.5%
gain for the first quarter, while its older, Europe-focused
counterpart returned 8.9%, according to the company,
outperforming most funds in both regions. 
    
    WHY IT’S IMPORTANT 
    The rapid growth of ActusRay, which launched its first fund
three years ago by a team of former Macquarie quant investors,
makes it a rare example of a hedge fund thriving in a
challenging environment of persistently high U.S. interest
rates, a weak Chinese stock market and investor apathy towards 
alternative investments in Asia.
    
    CONTEXT
    ActusRay's equity long/short fund adopts a quantitative
framework with human adjustments avoid the deficiencies of
purely computer-driven approaches - a relatively niche strategy
in Asia that has helped the fund capture opportunities amid wild
market gyrations such as sharp interest rate moves and
geopolitical conflicts. 
    Market participants say such quant funds with a
discretionary overlay attract investors, as they are actively
managed and less directional.
    
    KEY QUOTE
    "The first-quarter performance was driven by a combination
of a favorable quant environment and our discretionary value
add-on top," said Andrew Alexander, co-founder and CIO at
ActusRay Partners. "Now that we have a live three-year track
record, we are seeing a pick-up in institutional interest."
    
    BY THE NUMBERS 
    Hedge funds that focused on investment in Asia, including
Japan, on average rose 3% in the first quarter, while
pan-European hedge funds were up 2%, according to data provider
HFR.


 (Reporting by Summer Zhen
Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Gerry Doyle)
 ((summer.zhen@thomsonreuters.com; 852-3462-7739;))