Boutique asset manager Infiniti Capital has won its first advisory mandate in Australia, effectively increasing its total assets under management to over $1 billion.

The Hong Kong-headquartered firm, which specialises in emerging manager hedge fund of funds mandates and related solutions for institutional clients, has just set up a permanent office in Sydney.

In a statement, the company said that the aftermath of the Madoff controversy has created profitable opportunities. "In the post-Madoff world, some institutions are attempting to switch to running their hedge fund books in-house," said Infiti Capital's Australia head Darren Katz.

"However, the operational and qualitative due diligence process required to vet hedge funds requires a specific set of skills and can be very labour and time intensive, often costing as much as $10,000 to $15,000 per fund. If funds parcel out this work to their staff, it is unlikely to produce better results in the medium term," he noted.

The company said that it has evaluated over 1000 hedge funds over the past five years and have another 2700 funds in its proprietary database. It also said that it is going beyond traditional funds of funds to include more systematic and long-only products.