Ex-Goldman Bond Trader Is Said to Start Macro Fund With Backing
Pascal Kummert focuses on emerging markets at Calvion Capital
Stable’s seeding of about $100 million is its biggest so far
By Katia Porzecanski (11/14/2018 )
(Bloomberg) -- Pascal Kummert, a former European bond trader at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., started a macro hedge fund with backing from seeder Stable Asset Management, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Calvion Capital Management, which focuses on emerging markets, started trading last month with almost $100 million from Stable, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
Kummert and Erik Serrano Berntsen, Stable’s chief executive officer, declined to comment. New York-based Calvion uses quantitative analysis to help complement its fundamental research and to determine trade timing. Ryan Munch, a former equities trader at Point72 Asset Management, oversees trading and quantitative research. Hedge fund startups outpaced closures in the first half of the year, according to data compiled by Hedge Fund Research Inc. Still, the industry saw clients pull about $11 billion this year through September.
The seed investment from Stable, which acquires stakes in hedge fund startups through a private equity unit, is the firm’s largest to date, one of the people said. Stable raised $300 million for the 2018 vintage of its Stable Seed Fund, which invests between $50 million and $100 million in hedge funds with specialized strategies in public markets. Stable’s investors include sovereign wealth funds, endowments and Australian pension funds, the person said.
The practice of taking passive, minority stakes in alternative-asset managers has boomed as investors seek out different sources of yield. The Calvion backing is Stable’s third seed investment this year. In September, Bloomberg reported that Stable took a stake in Aptior Capital, an event-driven and distressed-debt hedge fund started by a group of former traders from the now-defunct Eton Park Capital Management. Earlier this year, Stable backed equity manager Durant Partners, which spun out of Water Street Capital. Last year, H2O Asset Management, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, acquired Stable’s stake in systematic investment firm Arctic Blue Capital -- the final holding from its previous seed portfolio.