ActusRay Partners, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund firm backed by the city's investment major Sun Hung Kai & Co, has more than doubled its assets to over $700m since the start of 2023, despite a challenging environment that has seen many of its peers struggle, according to a report by Reuters.

The firm's newly launched Asia-focused equity fund saw a 13.5% gain in the first three months of the year, while its older, Europe-focused counterpart returned 8.9% over ten same period, outperforming the majority of funds in both regions.

According to data provider HFR, Asia and Japan-focused hedge funds recorded an average 3% in Q1, while pan-European hedge funds were up 2% over the same period.

A team of former Macquarie Group quant investors launched ActusRay's first fund three years ago — an equity long/short quant fund with a discretionary overlay that makes it more actively managed than a pure play directional fund — which the firm says has allowed it to capture opportunities amid heightened market volatility from sharp interest rate moves and geopolitical conflicts.

The report quotes Andrew Alexander, Co-Founder and CIO at ActusRay Partners: "The first-quarter performance was driven by a combination of a favourable quant environment and our discretionary value add-on top.

"Now that we have a live three-year track record, we are seeing a pick-up in institutional interest."