York Capital Seeks $500 Million New Money for Asia Strategy

(Bloomberg) -- Jamie Dinan's York Capital Management LP is seeking fresh money for its Asia strategy to take advantage of increased opportunities in the region, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The New York-based hedge fund firm reopened its Asia-focused funds last month, tapping new and existing investors for another $500 million, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. York's Asia strategy currently oversees $2.5 billion and stopped accepting money from new investors in late January 2019.

The spread of Covid-19 and an oil shock sent global stocks tumbling in March. The MSCI Asia-Pacific Index has declined around 18% from its mid-January peak amid concerns about a global recession.

York is joining well-known managers including Seth Klarman's Baupost Group LLC and D.E. Shaw & Co. in raising money amid market turmoil. Investors yanked $33 billion from the global hedge fund industry in the first three months of the year, the biggest quarterly outflow in more than a decade, Hedge Fund Research Inc. data show.

At a time when investors are unable to travel to meet managers personally, they may favor more established firms over untested newcomers, which may also find it harder to make money and expand assets to survive in the challenging environment.

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York, which manages about $18 billion globally, has operated in Asia for around 13 years. Its Asia strategy, including the York Asian Opportunities Fund, is co-managed by regional Chief Executive Officer Masahiko Yamaguchi and firm co-Chief Investment Officer Christophe Aurand.

The York Asian Opportunities Fund, with assets of about $1 billion, returned 6% in April, making money from the widening of merger-arbitrage spreads, stocks in China and transactions related to corporate governance improvements in Japan, the person said. Already, around $250 million of the new money sought has been raised.

It lost 6% in March, bringing returns for the first four months of the year to 2%, the person said. The fund gained 30% in 2019, the person added.

A Bloomberg gauge tracking hedge funds globally declined 8.1% in March for a more than 10% first-quarter drop.

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