April 18, 2024

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Vehicle light trails on Seoul's expressway at night. (Bloomberg-Yonhap)

A multistrategy hedge fund by a South Korean manager logged the highest annual net return for 2020 in the Asia-Pacific region, data showed on March 31.

The hedge fund, Gudo TAO Fund 1, net returned 124.99 percent, topping the list of Asia-Pacific-based multistrategy hedge funds through 2020, according to data from international market data tracker Preqin.

The fund outperformed peers managed by Singapore’s Caygan Capital as well as Hong Kong‘s Factorial Management and BRIC Neutron Asset management.

Overseen by Seoul-based Gudo Investment Management since 2020, the fund is mainly dedicated to leveraged long-short strategies targeting equities in Korea and abroad, according to the hedge fund manager. The same fund, managing $17.4 million in assets, was also ranked No. 4 among regional hedge funds smaller than $100 million.

Gudo manages a total of 56 billion won ($49 million) in assets via six funds. Founded in 2016 as an investment adviser, Gudo established a separate hedge fund management arm in 2020.

Also on the list was Korea-based Quad Investment Management by Preqin’s estimate. Net returning 25.26 percent in 2020, Quad‘s long-short fund dedicated to equity market neutral strategies was ranked No. 4 among regional hedge funds exercising value strategies.

Preqin tracks 3,300 active and liquidated hedge funds by 990 managers globally, with 1,600 active hedge funds based in the Asia-Pacific region.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)