HONG KONG, April 30 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-based ActusRayPartners, a hedge fund backed by the city's investment giant Sun Hung Kai & Co, has more than doubled its assets to over $700 million since the start of 2023, even as many of its peers struggled.

Its newly launched Asia-focused equity fund notched a 13.5% gain for the first quarter, while its older, Europe-focused counterpart returned 8.9%, according to Christophe Lee, interim CEO of SHK Capital Partners, the funds management arm of SHK & Co, outperforming most funds in both regions.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

The rapid growth of ActusRayPartners, which launched its first fund three years ago by a team of former Macquarie quant investors, makes it a rare example of a hedge fund thriving in a challenging environment of persistently high U.S. interest rates, a weak Chinese stock market and investor apathy towards alternative investments in Asia.

CONTEXT

ActusRayPartners' equity long/short fund adopts a quantitative framework with human adjustments avoid the deficiencies of purely computer-driven approaches - a relatively niche strategy in Asia that has helped the fund capture opportunities amid wild market gyrations such as sharp interest rate moves and geopolitical conflicts.

Market participants say such quant funds with a discretionary overlay attract investors, as they are actively managed and less directional.

KEY QUOTE

"The first-quarter performance was driven by a combination of a favorable quant environment and our discretionary value add-on top," said Lee said. "Now that we have a live three-year track record, we are seeing a pick-up in institutional interest."

BY THE NUMBERS

Hedge funds that focused on investment in Asia, including Japan, on average rose 3% in the first quarter, while pan-European hedge funds were up 2%, according to data provider HFR. (Reporting by Summer Zhen Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Gerry Doyle)