South Korea’s asset management company Timefolio Co. has drawn about 400 billion won ($347 million) in just a month after launching hedge funds, emerging as the fourth largest in terms of trust assets among heavily competed by 42 hedge fund management companies. Top three are Samsung Asset Management Co., Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. and ANDA Asset Management.

Timefolio said it has attracted 387 billion won from May 23 to June 21 for four hedge funds it released last month. On the first day of their launch, each of the four funds attracted almost 49 investors, a limit a Korean private equity fund is allowed to recruit, who injected a total of 300 billion won. Additional 90 billion won was collected from institutional and professional investors.

“After an insurance company who pledged 10 billion won in our fund this month, we will temporarily stop recruiting additional investors,” said Hwang Sung-hwan, CEO of Timefolio.

When Hwang was a student at Seoul National University, Korea’s most prestigious school, he won in a series of investment contests, becoming famous in the investment circle. After graduation, he was hired by Daewoo Securities (currently Mirae Asset Daewoo Co.) in 2004. In 2008 he founded Timefolio Investment Advisors Co. and has been running more than 1 trillion won ever since, focusing on long-short equity-linked bonds (ELBs). It has never made a loss since its inception, even during the 2008 global financial crisis, and has turned out more than a 10 percent investment return annually. Last month, it declared that it would enter the local hedge fund market that started to grow rapidly after the government eased regulations on operating hedge funds in the country last year.

The company is currently running just 35 percent of the trust with a long-short strategy and holding the rest 65 percent in cash amid growing uncertainty in the financial market ahead of the Britain’s vote on the European Union membership. Under the unfavorable market condition, the company has been generating a meager 0.2 percent return on its investments.

“We are waiting for the right time. When the uncertainty is eased, we will aggressively invest in promising stocks,” said Hwang.

By Choi Jae-won

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