From FIN alternatives

Cayman Islands-based Asia Frontier Capital has made two hires for its Hong Kong office.

Ruchir Desai has joined as senior investment analyst and Stephen Friel as marketing director.

Desai joins AFC from The Leopard Asia Frontier Fund where he was a summer associate in 2012. Prior to that, he spent two years as a senior analyst at mid-market private equity group HandsOn Ventures in Mumbai and before that, he spent three years as a research analyst covering the software services industry at Pioneer Investcorp, an institutional brokerage based in that city.

Prior to joining AFC, Friel was involved in the launch of a Hong Kong-based hedge fund and before that was a statistical officer at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. He is also a former international business/strategy lecturer at The Queensland University of Technology Business School.

Founded in March 2012, the AFC Asia Frontier Fund has returned 5.15%, 9.96% and 18.68% net of fees on a three-month, year-to-date and one-year basis, respectively. The fund employs a combined top down and bottom up investment strategy to identify opportunities in  Bangladesh, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar,  Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Said Thomas Hugger, CEO and fund manager, in a statement:

“Research provided by Senior Investment Analyst Ruchir Desai has already begun to bear fruit with increasing stock coverage and the creation of enhanced screening tools to identify growth and value opportunities in our frontier universe. The fund’s exposure and ability to communicate with investors has also seen a marked increase under the direction of our new marketing director, Stephen Friel. Asia Frontier Capital is now poised for the next stage of growth and has the resources to accommodate individual investors as well as large seeding from institutional investors. I look forward to improving on the already stellar performance that has been generated since the fund’s inception.”

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