Mark Fuchs, chief executive of Singapore-based Fuchs Capital Partners, said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires that he is launching a hedge fund focused on trading blue-chip, large-capitalized Southeast Asian stocks in the region in two months. Fuchs, the former head of Credit Suisse Group's (CS) Southeast Asia equities division, has teamed up with two other Southeast Asian veterans: Winston Loke, who was previously Credit Suisse's Chief Operating Officer for Asia-Pacific ex-Japan, Australia equities and Mark Maroongroge, most recently a portfolio manager with London-based hedge fund HBK Capital Management. He declined to elaborate on the size of the fund, however, other than to say it will start off "modest" in size but would eventually be "significant."   more »

West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) - India hedge fund manager, Taurus Mutual Fund, launched India’s first actively managed Equity Oriented Shariah compliant fund, the ‘Taurus Ethical Fund’. With a minimum investment of INR 5000 ($100K), the open-ended diversified equity fund opens on February 19, 2009 and closes on March 20, 2009. Launching in Mumbai, the hedge funds has been certified by an independent Shariah Board named TASIS (Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions).   more »