The Hong Kong multistrategy hedge fund hiring into 2024
Kurt Baker is starting a hedge fund in Hong Kong.
The team hasn’t been assembled yet, but it’s going to be a big one. Bloomberg reported that the ex-Morgan Stanley prime broker was aiming to raise $3bn in capital commitments, and it would have “eight to 10 investment teams”.
But who’s going to join? Well, there might be a clue in Baker’s past.
Baker spent just shy of 10 years at Millennium, first as head of Asian business development and then as special advisor to business development in New York City. Before that, but after his stint with Morgan Stanley’s prime brokerage, he co-founded another hedge fund - JT Capital Management, focused on Greater China. There, he teamed up Larry Zhang, a former Barclays portfolio manager.
Another clue might be found by looking at a rival major Hong Kong hedge fund – Polymer Capital Management, founded by ex-Point72 Asia chief Angus Wai, which currently has around $4.5bn in AUM, per Bloomberg. Polymer has picked up a number of Portfolio Managers (PMs) this year, including Shiv Gupta, a former Morgan Stanley equities trader, in Tokyo; Meng Lou, a former ExodusPoint PM in Hong Kong; and Dan Bosscher, formerly of UBS, in distant Sydney.
If 30th Century Partners manages to launch this year with $3bn under management, as Bloomberg has reported it will, it’ll be the biggest fund launch this year by some margin, well ahead of SurgoCap Partners’ estimated $1.8bn launch.
The new launch might, however, fall into the shadow of a completely different beast next year, namely Bobby Jain, former co-CIO of Millennium, who has a much bigger target – the biggest hedge fund launch in history, eclipsing even ExodusPoint’s $8.5bn.
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