HS Group, a Hong Kong-based firm launched in 2013 to provide seed capital and strategic backing for hedge funds in Asia, announced its first investment in a fund being set up by two Soros Fund Management veterans.
An HS Group news release Monday said the firm and its affiliates would provide more than half of the $150 million in commitments for a fund due to be launched in the third quarter of 2014 by Hong Kong-based Pleiad Investment Advisors.
Pleiad’s founding partners will contribute the rest of that initial capital, including Kenneth Lee, who served previously as a Hong Kong-based China specialist with Soros Fund Management, and Michael Yoshino, a Hong Kong-based Japan specialist with SFM.
Neither Mr. Lee nor Mr. Yoshino could be reached immediately for further comment. A spokesman for SFM likewise could not be reached for comment.
As for other senior officials at the new firm, the announcement said the person lined up to be Pleiad’s chief operating officer is a veteran of both Goldman Sachs and “one of Asia's longest standing alternative investment firms,” while the person poised to become chief financial officer served at Goldman Sachs.
A spokesman for HS declined to name the COO and CFO, saying they haven’t officially left their previous firms.
Asked whether the initial capital provided from HS Group’s Sponsor Fund represented a private equity investment or a cornerstone investment in Pleiad Investment Advisors’ fund, the spokesman said in an e-mail, “the terms of our strategic capital are confidential.”
Before a recent name change, HS Group was called Headland Strategic. In October, Gottex Fund Management took a minority stake in the firm.
