New York-based hedge fund heavyweight, Fortress Investment Group LLC, has apparently started an Asia-focused macro fund – the Fortress Asia Macro Fund &ndashPARA_BREAK_SENTINEL_9f8e7d6c

New York-based hedge fund heavyweight, Fortress Investment Group LLC, has apparently started an Asia-focused macro fund – the Fortress Asia Macro Fund – that it hopes to grow to USD500million reported Bloomberg this week. The fund has allegedly already begun trading with the firm’s capital and that of a few clients and is expected to start receiving investor allocations from April onwards. The launch follows the relocation of co-CIO of global macro funds, Adam Levinson, from New York to Singapore in January. Fortress CEO Daniel Mudd told Bloomberg via email that Asia was “top of our list of priorities”, confirming that the firm was already trading “about 40 per cent” of its Fortress Macro Fund out of Singapore. There are apparently plans to grow headcount in its Singapore office to 20 to 25 people. A recent report by Deutsche Bank found that global macro funds were set to be one of the most popular amongst investors in 2011, and with strong interest in Asian currencies among macro funds, Asia is likely to be on high on their agenda. Fortress’s macro fund gained 10.7 per cent last year.