Credit manager BlueMountain Capital Management has brought on MaoLi Tian to target new money from Asian investors. Its BlueMountain Credit Alternatives fund currently has around $2.8 billion under management, up from $2.5 billion a few months ago, and it is growing. Stephen Siderow, chief operating officer and a founder of BlueMountain, declined to specify the fund's targeted assets under management but said Tian will target growing interest from Japanese investors in the hedge fund space. The manager invests mainly in credit derivatives but does also play in the cash markets.
Siderow said credit is an attractive space now because of increased liquidity and transparency due to growth in the credit derivatives space, as well as developments in electronic trading with MarketAxess and TRACE. "There was always volatility in the credit markets but it was basically unseen...Today you can see it more and you can take advantage of it by trading it," he explained.
Tian spent the last year pursuing private equity investments between China and the U.S. and previously worked at investment manager Aetos Capital as well as Goldman Sachs. BlueMountain has recently made several hires: Areti Loizou, v.p. in credit research at Morgan Stanley; Jason Carley, head of European high-grade and high-yield corporate credit research at Merrill Lynch; and Jeremy Barnum, co-head of North American credit trading at J.P. Morgan for its new London office (BW, 4/4).