Highbridge Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund owned by JPMorgan Chase & Co., is liquidating its $1.4 billion Asia Opportunities Fund after manager Carl Huttenlocher resigned and may set up his own fund, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Huttenlocher also was the firm's Asia head and managed investments in the region for Highbridge Multi-Strategy Fund, accounting for about 8% of the fund's $6.5 billion of assets.
His departure comes as investors are returning to the hedge fund industry, which was hurt by the global financial crisis. Ninety-five hedge fund startups in Asia raised $3.84 billion of assets last year, 4% more than 2009, according to AsiaHedge New Funds Survey. (Highbridge's Asia Opportunities Fund raised more than $250 million of assets in 2010.)
"If a fund was very associated with one manager and the clients were in it really because of him," then it makes sense to shut down when the star manager leaves, said Paul Smith, the chief executive of the asset manager and hedge fund distributor Triple A Partners Ltd. in Hong Kong. "A group like Highbridge would automatically give clients the right to redeem if the star left," Smith said.
Highbridge, which oversees $27 billion, plans to return cash to investors in the Asia fund by the end of the month, the people said.
