BFAM Partners (Hong Kong) Ltd. parted ways with one of its most senior portfolio managers and shut its London office, marking the latest shake up at the hedge fund which was a high profile trader of China high-yield property debt.
(Bloomberg) — BFAM Partners (Hong Kong) Ltd. parted ways with one of its most senior portfolio managers and shut its London office, marking the latest shake up at the hedge fund which was a high profile trader of China high-yield property debt.
Emmanuel Slezack, who led equity volatility trading, joins earlier departures by Eugene Fung and Danny Scinto, the company said in an email. The three were previously senior portfolio managers heading separate strategies under founder and Chief Investment Officer Benjamin Fuchs.
BFAM, founded in 2012, oversaw about $5 billion at its peak and delivered gains in each of its first nine years. It lost 11% in 2021 and 26% in 2022, largely due to setbacks from investments in Chinese real estate credit, an example of how Beijing’s shifting political and regulatory agenda burnt investors.
With losses and investor redemptions cutting assets to just over one-fifth of the peak, Fuchs’s plan to turn around the fund entailed ring-fencing hard-to-sell China credit assets, refocusing on more liquid investments and resuming the bulk of the trading himself from the start of this year.
Read More: Fuchs’s BFAM Hedge Fund Gains 7.5% in Initial Sign of Recovery
BFAM won a regulatory license for a London office last fall to cater to demands from employees to seek escape from Hong Kong’s stringent Covid restrictions, including quarantine for travelers and in-person school suspension.
The London office was considered an ill-fit for the now Asia-focused firm after Hong Kong ended curbs, the company said, adding that all employees are based in the region.
Slezack was the sole employee in the London office. Liam Stevenson, another portfolio manager meant to relocate to London, left earlier this year.
“We continue to execute our plan of simplifying the business,” Fuchs said in a text message. BFAM shut its US office last year.
Francois Le Barazer, a nearly-30-year veteran, took over from Slezack at the end of the first quarter. Jerry Zhou assumed Stevenson’s equity capital markets responsibilities in mid-February, having worked at Segantii Capital Management Ltd., a regional hedge fund.
BFAM’s hedge fund returned about 7% this year through this month, driven mostly by Asian credit, including from China and India, a person familiar with the matter said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. Convertible bond investments across Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan also contributed to the gains, the person added.
Fuchs declined to comment on the numbers and drivers.
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