Bruce Kirk, one of the principal partners at Asian multi-strategy fund Azentus Capital Partners – one of the region’s biggest launches in 2011 – has left the firm and is understood to be planning the launch of his own hedge fund operation later this year.
Kirk was a key trader at Azentus along with founder Morgan Sze, the celebrated former Goldman Sachs prop trader who founded Azentus. He was in-charge of investments in Japan, a market that has been seeing considerable investor interest since late last year.
Kirk’s departure in early March from Azentus comes nearly two years after the April 2011 launch of the fund, which made a splash in the Asia-Pacific region by raising at least $2 billion in capital when it started.
The multi-strat vehicle, however, is understood to have experienced a difficult first two years of trading in the risk on/risk off market environment.
Before Azentus, Kirk worked on the Goldman Sachs prop desk in Tokyo for two years – having previously been a managing director at Blackstone. Before that he was a senior portfolio advisor for three years at Japan Advisory in Hong Kong, after working as co-head of equity research at KBC Securities Japan.