Ex-Wall Street execs launch Asian hedge fund

A fund management group run by former Wall Street bank executives has launched an Asia-focused hedge fund with seed capital from a European family office.

Hong Kong-based Ardon Maroon Fund Management of Frank Dominick, formerly of Morgan Stanley, and Charles Woo, who worked at Lehman Brothers, launched the hedge funds to profit from events such as mergers and restructurings.

The launch comes as Asian funds that focus on mergers and activities such as spin-offs or bankruptcies, also called event-driven funds, have outperformed so far in 2012, rising 5 percent on average against the 3.7 percent gain overall for Asian hedge funds, data from industry tracker Eurekahedge showed.

Maroon Capital Asia, the investment vehicle of European family office Maroon, has provided seed capital worth $25 million to the fund and working capital to support the business.

The group has started trading with $26.5 million and has hired Mirza Rahman as chief operating officer.

Rahman earlier held the COO role at Artradis, which was once Singapore's biggest hedge fund with peak assets of $4.9 billion but wound up in 2011.

James O'Hanlon, a former managing director at Bank of America Corp in Japan, has been hired by Ardon as a portfolio manager.

The Ardon Asia Fund will invest primarily in Hong Kong, China, Korea, Australia, Singapore, and Japan and takes opportunistic bets in India, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

For more.