Melissa Ko, former senior managing director, trader and portfolio manager at Bear Stearns Asset Management, left JPMorgan Asset Management to create her own firm and took the hedge fund she managed with her.
Ms. Ko founded Covepoint Capital in New York and moved the former Bear Stearns Emerging Markets Macro Fund that she managed into the new firm. The fund’s assets once totaled about $1.3 billion, but now hover around $925 million, according to news reports.
JPMorgan Asset Management “will retain an economic interest in Covepoint’s revenue stream for several years” but will not invest in Ms. Ko’s fund, confirmed Mary Sedarat, a JPMorgan spokeswoman. Ms. Sedarat said BSAM had made a modest principal investment in the emerging markets fund, but that Ms. Ko returned that capital to Bear Stearns Cos. Inc.’s acquirer, JPMorgan Chase & Co., when the fund was spun out.
Ms. Ko could not be reached for comment.
