Meritz backs half of ex-manager’s $210 mn hedge fund

Meritz Financial Group Inc., one of South Korea’s most aggressive alternative asset managers, has committed 150 billion won ($105 million) to DeltaFlex Capital Management Pte., a hedge fund launched by a former executive renowned for principal investing, according to investment banking sources on Wednesday.

Meritz Securities Co. and Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance Co. are among the financial group’s units deploying capital to the fund set up by Roh Youngjin in Singapore early this year.

Their commitment represents about half of DeltaFlex’s assets under management of 300 billion won ($210 million).

At Meritz Securities, Roh, 52, oversaw its new technology venture capital fund that managed over 100 billion won in assets and achieved decent returns.

The former executive director also led its equity trading division and multi-strategy team during his stint at the brokerage firm between 2014 and 2021.

In 2021, Roh moved to Millennium Capital Management, one of the world’s top 10 hedge funds, where he worked as a senior portfolio manager until 2024.

DeltaFlex is a Northeast Asia-focused multi-asset fund and targets an annualized return of around 10%. It began operations this year after securing a business license in Singapore. Its strategies center on convertible bonds.

It was formed by a team of about 10 employees, most of whom previously worked with Roh at Meritz Securities or Woori Investment & Securities Co.

Meritz Financial approached Roh to join his fundraising as part of its portfolio diversification, according to the sources.

In his last year at Meritz Securities in 2021, he received a total of 3 billion won in salary and severance for the first half alone, attributable to his stellar performance. That marked the highest half-year compensation awarded to an employee at the brokerage company that year.

Write to Gyeong-Jin Min at min@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.