Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, the New York-based hedge-fund manager that went public last year, eliminated at least 10 jobs in Asia, including partner Raaj Shah, said two people familiar with the matter.

The cuts made last week, out of a global workforce of about 460, included employees in the firm’s credit and distressed- investment units, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information wasn’t publicly announced.

“We have made some minor reductions in Asia, and we remain committed to the region,” the company said today in an e-mailed statement. Hong Kong-based Shah referred calls to the company.

Citadel Investment Group LLC, the Chicago-based firm run by Kenneth Griffin, and New York-based Ramius LLC have also laid off staff in Asia as hedge funds suffer their biggest annual loss and highest investor withdrawals since at least 1990. The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index declined 23 percent this year through Dec. 5 amid a global credit squeeze and a more than 40 percent decline in the MSCI World Index.

Och-Ziff said on Dec. 2 that its Asia Master Fund, which accounts for about 10 percent of the firm’s client assets, dropped 1.2 percent in November, extending this year’s loss to 27.5 percent.

The firm co-founded by Chairman Daniel Och and Ziff Brothers Investments in 1994 managed $27.7 billion at Dec. 1, a 2.5 percent decline from the previous month, it said in a Dec. 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Asia Investments

Och-Ziff invested about 15 percent of its assets outside North America and Europe, mostly in Asia, as of September, according to a presentation at a Merrill Lynch & Co. conference last month. Och told the conference that September and October were the most difficult months on record for the hedge-fund industry.

The firm posted a third-quarter profit as its biggest funds outperformed the average drop in hedge-fund performance through Sept. 30. Distributable earnings, a measure of profit that excludes costs from the initial public offering, were $54.3 million, or 14 cents a share, the company said in a statement Nov. 4.

“We have and will continue to selectively reconfigure personnel with both the opportunity set and global economic conditions in mind,” Och-Ziff said in the statement.

The company employed 458 people globally, including 18 partners, the presentation said. Shah was one of the partners, together with Och, and Zoltan Varga, the firm’s head of Asian investing, according to regulatory filings.

Outside of New York and London, Och-Ziff maintains offices in Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangalore, according to a Nov. 25 press release. Last month, it announced the hiring of four senior real estate investment professional for Asia, to be based in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and India.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bei Hu in Hong Kong at bhu5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 9, 2008 07:37 EST