New York-based global macro fixed income hedge fund manager Drake Management LLC has opened an office in Marunouchi, Tokyo.
The office, which Drake is in the process of registering as a Japanese investment advisor, is manned by three senior staff and dedicated primarily to servicing Drake’s growing clientele across Asia. Drake currently manages over $6 billion.
The opening concludes a process Drake started just over two years ago when it hired Richard Horodeck, founder and head of the consulting firm Hedge Japan, to spearhead its push into Japan. Horodeck, who speaks Japanese and Mandarin, joined Drake as a Managing Director.
“Since then, we have used every tool in our box – a multi-lingual website, local seminars, Asia-friendly investment structures, alliances with local partners and lots of frequent-flyer miles – to build bridges to the region and open a window into Drake,” says Horodeck. “These activities are indispensable, but in the end still leave investors standing outside. The new office, which will be linked directly with Drake’s sophisticated New York IT platform and – through video-conferencing – with all levels of Drake’s New York head quarter steam, will bring our investorsmuch more inside Drake.”
Steve Luttrell, a Drake co-founder and the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, emphasizes the opposite angle. “Just as the 20th Century was the American century, the 21st will belong to Asia,” he says. “To be a part of this Asian century, Drake will need to become a part of Asia, physically. The path we have taken asa firm makes now the right time, and Tokyo the right place, for us to take this important step.”
Drake’s new office is manned by Horodeck, who serves as its President, and two Executive Vice Presidents- Kenji Yamauchi, a Japanese native who joined Drake with Horodeck from HedgeJapan, and Chunli Hou, a newly hired Taiwanese who until recently headed the Taipei-based investment advisor, Prudence International Advisory. The team’s U.S. anchor is provided by Takako Funada, another former HedgeJapan staffer, who is stationed in New York.
“The edge my two Tokyo colleagues give Drake is indispensable,” says Horodeck. “All three of us will be based in Asia. Yamauchi will cover Japan and Hou Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and mainland China. I expect to spend two-thirds of my time supporting their efforts, and the balance managing our initiatives in Korea and Australia, as well as liaison with New York.”
Drake’s Tokyo office is located atTokyo Ginko Kyokai Building, 15th floor,1-3-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0005 Japan;telephone +81 3 32167337;fax +81 3 3216 7237.