Apr 30, 2024
Hedge Fund Garda Hires JPMorgan’s Takemura for Yen Rates Trading
, Bloomberg News
(Bloomberg) -- US hedge fund firm Garda Capital Partners has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. managing director Yoichi Takemura to expand yen rates trading as the return of inflation to Japan creates opportunities after a more than two-decade lull, said a person with knowledge of the matter.
Takemura is expected to join Garda’s Singapore office as a portfolio manager within a month, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. He will be one of the firm’s most senior Asia hires, the person added.
The Wayzata, Minnesota-based company manages more than $10 billion of assets and focuses on relative-value trading involving developed markets interest rates, commodities and equities.
A spokeswoman for Garda declined to comment. Takemura couldn’t be reached. JPMorgan representatives in Tokyo declined to comment.
More than a dozen yen rate traders have left banks including Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. over the past 18 months to join hedge funds and other money managers as the Bank of Japan’s unwinding of monetary stimulus creates the volatility that makes trading more profitable, Bloomberg reported last week. BlueCrest Capital Management, Capula Investment Management and Millennium Management are among firms that have recruited or are hiring for such roles.
Read more: Hedge Funds Snap Up Japan Rates Traders in Bet on Comeback
Garda’s hedge fund dates back to 2003, when it was part of the Black River Asset Management unit of conglomerate Cargill Inc. While it was able to trade yen rates throughout the two decades, it has been expanding the roster of investment professionals since inflation in Japan started to pick up, the person said.
Takemura’s recruitment takes the number of portfolio managers and associate portfolio managers who have yen rates as part of their trading remit to more than six, compared with the historical average of two or three, the person added.
Garda’s three-year-old, 14-people-strong Singapore office is led by Asia head Alex Zhang, himself a yen rates portfolio manager who once worked at Millennium and Capula. While most of Garda’s yen rates trading is done from the city-state these days, it also has portfolio managers elsewhere who tap such opportunities.
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