The Singapore state investment agency Temasek Holdings and Japanese broker Monex are to launch an Asian fund of hedge funds that will invest...

The Singapore state investment agency Temasek Holdings and Japanese broker Monex are to launch an Asian fund of hedge funds that will invest in Asia-Pacific companies. Temasek’s Fullerton Fund Management and Monex, Japan’s fourth-biggest online brokerage, will each contribute $15 million to the fund, which will target high net worth individuals and institutions. The fund is expected to be launched in mid-2005. Fullerton will be the exclusive distributor of the Fullerton-Monex Asian fund of hedge funds, or FMA Fund, selecting fund managers outside Japan. As sub-advisor, Monex will select Japanese managers and be exclusive distributor in Japan. “Our FMA Fund will leverage on the combined strengths of Fullerton and Monex to capitalise on the growing hedge fund market in Asia,” Fullerton chief executive officer Gerard Lee said in a statement. Monex founder and chief executive, Oki Matsumoto, an ex-partner of The Goldman Sachs, said the new fund would feed growing demand for Asian investments. “Japanese investors are increasingly interested in Asian exposure as well as in alternative investments,” he said in a statement.