SkyBridge Capital has raised its assets by 24 per cent to $8.3 billion and allocated more money to Asian managers, Bloomberg reported. The firm organises the biggest conference in the US hedge fund business.

Assets have increased from $6.7 billion when it held its Asian inaugural SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, known as SALT, last October in Singapore, managing partner Anthony Scaramucci was quoted as telling the news service.

Its Series G flagship fund, which has put money with Third Point, run by billionaire hedge-fund manager Daniel Loeb, is up 7.1 per cent this year through July. The Eurekahedge Fund of Funds Index has gained 3.7 percent in the period, the report said.

Before starting SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci, known in the industry as “the Mooch,” co-founded Oscar Capital Management, which he sold to Neuberger Berman in 2001, the report said.

More than 10 per cent of the new allocations into the offshore offerings came from Asia, said Scaramucci, who sees growing appetite from countries including Japan and South Korea for investments that deliver high returns with low volatility. Investments in Asia-based managers have increased in the past year, he said, declining to elaborate.

Most recent data suggests stock market performance in Asia-Pacific, ex-Japan, has been negative. The MSCI Pacific Ex-Japan Index of stock market returns, comprising capital growth and reinvested dividends, is down 1 per cent since 1 January; over one year, on an annualised historical basis, returns are 6.43 per cent. For Japan, the MSCI Japan Index shows year-to-date returns of 17.7 per cent (source: MSCI Barra).