Japan hedge fund manager Sparx Group is set to launch a new long-short fund that focusses on profitable businesses that emerged after the global financial crisis, Bloomberg reports.

In an interview, chief executive Shuhei Abe told the news service said the firm aims to start the fund in the 2011 first quarter, with the goal to raise $200 million to $300 million in its first year. At the height of the crisis, the company had decided to sell some of its Asian assets to cut costs and let go of its US and UK businesses. Abe said Sparx is now "looking for Asia's winners."

"We want to become an Asian firm and it's going to be a new challenge for us, like painting on a brand new canvas," Abe was quoted as having said.

Under its fresh vision, Sparx will be using Japanese companies as benchmarks for competition in the region. A research team has also been set up in Tokyo to prepare for the fund's launch.