Hedge fund ‘King of Tokyo’ dethroned by insider trading probe

Edward Brogan was Japan’s highest-profile hedge fund manager until he suddenly dropped out of view this month. Dubbed the “King of Tokyo” by traders, the 53-year-old American seemed to have it all: wealth, professional acclaim and status as a patron of contemporary art. In his best year, Brogan had managed over one billion dollars in his flagship Whitney Japan Fund, although much of that has been withdrawn. Now Brogan is at the center of a probe of insider trading. His Tokyo-based firm Japan Advisory has been closed since regulators imposed a fine and revoked its license at the end of June. ===>Continue Reading at NewsOnJapan.com

David Baran’s Symphony Seeks $500 Million for Japan Hedge Funds

(Bloomberg) – Symphony Financial Partners, co- founded by an ex-Goldman Sachs (GS) Group Inc. trader in 2003, is seeking $1 billion from investors after its Japan-focused hedge fund returned more than four times its peers.

David Baran, co-chief executive officer of Tokyo-based Symphony, is targeting about $500 million in new allocations for the $200 million SFP Value Realization Fund, which invests in Japanese companies and works with management to prompt corporate actions such as share buybacks, he said. Symphony is also opening up the $21 million Sinfonietta fund, an Asia-focused macro fund, and looking to raise $400 million to $500 million from outside investors for it, he said.

Asia hedge fund start-up Expedition hires ex-Sparx Bahra

May 29 (Reuters) – Hong Kong-based hedge fund startup Expedition Advisors has hired Kam Bahra, former chief executive of Sparx Asia Investment Advisors, as chief operating officer, a top executive at the firm said on Tuesday.

Craig James, Expedition’s founder and former head of Asian trading at New York-based hedge fund AM Investment Partners, confirmed the hire to Reuters.

Bahra, a former Deutsche Bank executive with more than two decades of experience in the financial sector and a well known figure in the Asian hedge fund industry, left the Hong Kong unit of Japanese money manager Sparx Group at the end of last year.

Meanwhile, Sparx Sparx Group Co. (8739), Asia’s second- largest hedge fund, widened its full-year loss as performance and asset management fees dropped amid market declines on global economic concerns, according to Bloomberg.

The asset manager reported a net loss of 4.54 billion yen ($57 million) in the 12 months ended March 31, compared with 3.7 billion yen a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement through a stock exchange. Revenue fell 37 percent to 4.49 billion yen.

Sparx posted its second straight annual loss even after cutting employee compensation and relocating to less expensive offices in Tokyo. Assets under management dropped 20 percent to 535.4 billion yen during the year, the company said.

SOURCES:

Business Insider

Bloomberg

Reuters