April.14, 2007-- Singapore-based hedge fund JL Capital Pte Ltd is bullish on equity and currency markets in Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia, founder and managing director James Loh said.

The flagship Swordfish Macro fund, which has a global mandate to invest in equities, bonds and currency, saw strong investor inflows from Europe last year in search of Asian investments.

Assets under management surged to US$430 million (US$1 = RM3.44) at the end of 2006 after the fund started in 2003 with US$30 million.

“We like Asia. There is huge global liquidity coming into Asia. At this moment in time — and our time horizon is very short —I don’t see a need to be a big short anywhere,” Loh told the Reuters Hedge Funds and Private Equity Summit here on Thur sday.

Loh, who started off his more than 30-year trading career at Salomon Brothers in New York before moving to Asia in 1998 with UBS and later starting his own shop in 2003, said he expected the fund to reach US$500 million before the end of this year and would have a soft close.

Swordfish chalked up a return of 15 per cent in 2006 — compared with an average peer group return of about 11 per cent — and was awarded Best Asian-based Global Macro Fund by Eurekahedge for the second consecutive year.

Loh said the year-to-date return for the fund was four per cent and he expected returns in 2007 to match those of last year.

Besides the Swordfish Macro, JL Capital has three other funds — Swordfish Asian Equity, which was set up in January 2006. It also just launched the Swordfish Currency fund at the start of 2007 and also JL Strateg ic.

The firm’s total assets under management are more than US$600 million.

Loh said he was bullish about the outlook for the currency fund, which was started with US$14.5 million, as there are not that many currency funds in Asia.

“About 70-plus per cent of Asian funds are equity related, so there is huge competition. There are really not so many currency funds in Asia, though there are quite a few in the US and Europe,” he said.

Loh’s currency fund, which trades actively, is currently long on the Singapore dollar and sterling, and short the Hong Kong dollar.

JL Capital employs 22 people full-time, including eight portfolio managers who have an average of 21 years experience in the Asian markets.