(Bloomberg) Three former managing directors of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)’s Japan business plan to start an Asia multi-strategy hedge fund early next year, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Koji Gotoda and Takayuki Kasama have incorporated Golvis Investment Pte in Singapore, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The fund will invest in all asset classes with an initial focus on Japan, they added.
Japan-focused hedge funds have historically traded stocks, making a company staffed by a large team of former Goldman Sachs employees and capable of investing in multiple asset classes a rarity, one of the people said. The New York-based bank, once Wall Street’s most profitable securities firm, generated about half of its revenue from trading last quarter.
“The pedigree of the principals will guarantee they at least get a good hearing from prospective allocators,” Peter Douglas, principal of Singapore-based GFIA Pte, which advises on hedge-fund investments. “After many years of slow death or exile for the Japanese hedge fund industry, it does feel as if the industry, like the country, could be on the verge of a renaissance.”
