Hedge fund Point72 boosts Singapore staff to 100: Source
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Point72 Asset Management's rising headcount underscores Singapore’s position as a growing hub for hedge funds in Asia.
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SINGAPORE - Point72 Asset Management has grown its Singapore team by more than 50 per cent since early 2022 to 100 people, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The Singapore office’s hiring picked up around the end of 2022 and accelerated in the past six months, the person said, requesting not to be named because the matter is private.
The firm also brought on former Marshall Wace analyst Wei Lim as a portfolio manager focusing on long-short equity, the person said.
The growth was underpinned by hiring investment talent and those with tech and data skills from the local market, the person added.
Point72 declined to comment in an e-mailed statement.
The company’s Singapore head, Mr Rob Edmiston, moved to the Republic from Hong Kong in 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Point72 first set up an office in Singapore in 2009. The rising headcount underscores Singapore’s position as a growing hub for hedge funds in Asia.
The sector’s assets under management grew 30 per cent in 2021 to $257 billion – the biggest dollar increase on record, according to the most recent data from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Many global multi-strategy platforms have grown the funds they oversee by performing well in the past three years and gained new investors, said Mr Tony Ernest, managing partner at hedge fund talent consultancy Monroe Partners Asia.
That in turn means they need more portfolio managers to invest the funds, leading to ramped up recruiting in 2022.
“A lot of the hires have been macro, fixed-income related,” he said, adding that this was one reason why hiring in Singapore has been more pronounced than in Hong Kong.
“Much of the fixed-income, macro and also quantitative talent is based here in Singapore and not in Hong Kong, which has traditionally been more of an equity hub for portfolio managers.”
Mr Ernest said the pace so far in 2023 has been slower.
But with returns at most global firms continuing to be positive, the companies will be on the lookout for fresh talent in both locations, he added.
Hong Kong remains Point72’s largest office in Asia, with Singapore in second place, followed by its Tokyo unit.
The firm’s billionaire owner Steve Cohen told the Japanese media earlier in 2023 that he planned to increase staff there by around 20 per cent, which would bring the headcount to about 50.
Part of the growth is being driven by the firm’s quantitative investing efforts, including its unit Cubist Systematic Strategies.
In June, it hired Mr Zhao Jijie as a sub-portfolio manager, in addition to portfolio manager Naveen Putcha, who joined the company in January. BLOOMBERG
