OGI's Bedwick Set to Double His Global Macro Fund Assets to $100 Million

The OGI Global Macro Fund, run by former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. proprietary trader Allan Bedwick, is set to double assets to about $100 million this month after outperforming hedge-fund peers globally.

With money from overseas institutional investors, the fund’s assets swelled to $45 million from $15 million when it started last November, according to Naoya Takahashi, head of fund management at Tokyo-based OGI Capital Partners Ltd. It is set to double the assets with new capital by the end of this month, he said.

Bedwick’s global macro fund, which wagers on trends in stocks, bonds and currencies worldwide with a focus on Asia, returned more than 6 percent through August on a preliminary basis, beating the 2.1 percent gain by the Eurekahedge Hedge Fund Index. It posted positive returns during the market rout in May and June that was triggered by the Greek debt crisis, and has benefited from “bullish” bets on Japanese government bonds as well as Asian currencies, Takahashi said.

“Investors are looking for funds that have a low correlation with other funds and the performance during May and June helped pull in capital,” Takahashi, 48, said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “For global macro funds, the more capital we get, the better trades we can execute, especially in bonds and currency markets.”

Bedwick plans to hire an execution trader as early as September, bringing the team to four members, Takahashi said.

Asia Veteran

Bedwick, who has worked in Asia for more than 20 years, joined Tokyo-based OGI in August last year. He previously ran global macro trading within the Global Opportunities Group at Lehman Brothers Principal Investments, as well as the operation that followed when Nomura Holdings Inc. bought Lehman’s Asia and European businesses.

The Cayman Islands-based OGI Global Macro Fund has a maximum capacity of about 60 billion yen ($711 million) and around two-thirds of its investments will be made in the Asia- Pacific region, according to Takahashi.

Bedwick is focusing on themes including monetary policy steps the Bank of Japan may take after this week’s stimulus measures, Takahashi said. In efforts to spur the economy, the central bank boosted a bank-loan program by 10 trillion yen to a total of 30 trillion yen Aug. 30, while the government unveiled a 920 billion yen stimulus package.

“The most recent ‘easing’ they assumed was pathetic and nothing more than an attempt to keep the politicians at bay,” Bedwick said in e-mailed comments. “We are now deeply concerned that BOJ law reform will move forward and that the monetary policy will be imposed upon the BOJ instead of entrusted to them.”

Managers of global macro hedge funds returned 2.7 percent in 2008, when the industry posted an 11 percent drop in its worst year on record, according to Eurekahedge. The strategy has returned 2.2 percent so far this year through August.

Hedge funds are private, largely unregulated pools of capital whose managers can buy or sell any assets, bet on falling as well as rising asset prices, and participate substantially in profits from money invested.

To contact the reporters on this story: Tomoko Yamazaki in Tokyo at tyamazaki@bloomberg.net; Komaki Ito in Tokyo at kito@bloomberg.net