NEW YORK, Sept 4 — Blackstone Group LP has committed US$200 million (RM635 million) to Arkkan Capital Management Ltd, run by a former head of Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s Global Special Situations Group, said a person with knowledge of the matter.
Blackstone invested US$150 million in Jason Brown’s Hong Kong-based special situations hedge fund firm on Sept 1, the person said, asking not to be identified because the arrangement is private. Arkkan has the right to call the remaining US$50 million of capital committed by Blackstone by June 2015, the person added.
Arkkan marks the second hedge-fund startup Blackstone has backed in Asia since the 2008 global financial crisis. The blessing of the world’s largest manager of alternative investments to stocks and bonds also allowed Hong Kong-based Senrigan Capital Group Ltd to expand assets to more than US$1 billion in less than two years.
Arkkan started investing on Aug 1 with nine full-time employees and about US$20 million of capital, the person said. It focuses on special situations investments in emerging markets, primarily Asia, including direct lending to companies, mispriced high-yield bonds and loans, distressed corporate credit and equities trading at discounts to their embedded value because of solvency concerns, the person said.
Blackstone’s investment will be locked up for three years, said the person. It will get a cut of Arkkan’s revenue in exchange for its seeding investment, according to the person.
Brown started his career as a credit analyst at Bear Stearns Cos in 1994 before spending 14 years at Goldman Sachs. He was co-head and sole head of Goldman Sachs’s Asian Special Situations Group between 2006 and 2011, said the person. He led the Global Special Situations Group, with more than US$12 billion of investments, from 2011 to his retirement from the New York- based bank last year, the person said.
Peter Rose, a New York-based Blackstone spokesman, and Adam Robinson, Arkkan’s Hong Kong-based chief operating officer, declined to comment. — Bloomberg
