<article>Asia Pacific-focused <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.piquantcapital.com/home.html" target="_blank">Piquant Capital Pte</a> is pulling the shutters on its quantitative hedge fund as it failed to attract investor money after making a loss in 2014, Bloomberg reported.
The Singapore-based firm didn’t reach its targeted $60 million and will officially end operations at the end of the year, chief investment officer George Varghese said in an interview with Bloomberg.</article>

Asia Pacific-focused <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.piquantcapital.com/home.html" target="_blank">Piquant Capital Pte</a> is pulling the shutters on its quantitative hedge fund as it failed to attract investor money after making a loss in 2014, Bloomberg reported.
The Singapore-based firm didn’t reach its targeted $60 million and will officially end operations at the end of the year, chief investment officer George Varghese said in an interview with Bloomberg.
The firm stopped trading in June when its assets under management were at $20 million. Piquant invests in the Asia Pacific region, specifically in the most liquid large capitalised stocks; in Australia, China (&#8216;H&#8217; shares listed in Hong Kong), Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.
Varghese said his fund didn’t reach the assets under management needed to attract the interest of institutional investors like pension funds or sovereign wealth funds. “For a smaller fund, it’s hard to raise assets,” he said. “And it takes a couple of years to reach the size where institutional investors allocate money to you.”
The Piquant Ena fund was started in October 2011, according to Varghese. After returning 11 per cent and 5 per cent in the two following years, the fund lost 4 per cent in 2014 and was flat this year until ceasing operations, he said.
More of Asia’s smaller hedge funds are closing as volatile markets dent returns, tighter regulations increase costs and institutional investors entrust their money to bigger funds, Bloomberg reported.
The news wire noted that from the beginning of 2013 through November this year, 235 Asian funds with assets of less than $50 million ended operations, citing data from <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.eurekahedge.com/" target="_blank">Eurekahedge</a>. In comparison, only four firms with assets of more than $500 million ceased operations.
&#8220;Once you get below that super league, life is very difficult indeed,&#8221; said Peter Douglas, Singapore-based principal at <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://www.caia.org/" target="_blank">CAIA Association</a>, a global group for alternative investment education.
&#8220;A hedge fund under the $50 million mark is not a viable business model, period. I can see no circumstances where it works. At that level, you’re not going to get the attention of any serious allocators,” Douglas said.
Bloomberg pointed out that smaller hedge funds are especially at a disadvantage in a market that has even the largest and most high-profile managers reevaluating whether they want to be in the business.
It cited Michael Platt’s Jersey-based $8 billion <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.bluecrestcapital.com/" target="_blank">BlueCrest Capital Management</a>, which will return all client money by early next year and focus on managing internal money, citing declining fees and rising costs of running a hedge fund.
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Singapore: Piquant Capital to terminate hedge fund after making loss in 2014

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