Hong Kong Regulator Fines Hedge Fund Oasis, CIO for JAL Trade
Hong Kong’s securities regulator fined hedge fund Oasis Management (Hong Kong) LLC, which helped manage more than $3 billion at its peak, and its chief investment officer for 2006 trades of Japan Airlines Corp. shares.
Hong Kong-based Oasis and CIO Seth Fischer have each been fined HK$7.5 million ($961,767), the Securities and Futures Commission said in a statement today. They have also been publicly reprimanded for the trades that the regulator alleged appeared to have been designed to drive down the closing price of the carrier and benefit Oasis funds.
SFC has followed in the footsteps of global regulators to step up scrutiny of hedge funds. The regulator is appealing a Hong Kong High Court judge’s refusal to ban New York-based hedge fund Tiger Asia Management LLC from trading in securities or derivatives in the city for alleged insider trading of shares in two of China’s largest state banks.
“The high fines underscore the SFC’s determination to ensure Hong Kong’s market remains an international and regional hub for high standards,” Mark Steward, the commission’s executive director of enforcement, said in today’s statement.
The SFC alleged that Oasis placed several orders on the Tokyo Stock Exchange for Japan Air shares within 15 minutes of the market closing on July 19, 2006, after the carrier announced a plan for a public sale of new shares.
The trades appeared intended to drive down the closing price of Japan Air that day which would benefit the funds during purchases of new shares in the offering, whose pricing was referenced on the closing price, the SFC alleged.
Voluntary Measures
Oasis and Fischer didn’t admit that their trading strategy was designed to mislead the market for the Japan Air shares, according to the SFC. They agreed to accept the SFC sanctions and took voluntary measures in 2007 to avoid a repeat of similar trades on the Tokyo exchange, the regulator said.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter which relates to trading which took place over five years ago,” Oasis said in an e-mailed statement today. “We remain focused on delivering positive returns for our investors and doing so with skill and integrity as we have done for the last nine years.”
Oasis was founded by Fischer, who once ran Asian investments at Highbridge Capital Management LLC.
Oasis formed a venture with DKR Capital Partners LP in 2002, named DKR Oasis Management Co. LP, which ran the DKR SoundShore Oasis Fund, an Asia-focused multistrategy fund.
The venture was dissolved and outside investors’ money returned gradually after the 2008 global financial crisis.
The Japanese Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission had referred the matter to the SFC, and assisted in it, according to the Hong Kong regulator.
The SFC alleged that Oasis made orders to buy JAL shares it subsequently canceled on the day in question, and that some of its short sell orders were incorrectly labeled.
It also alleged that Oasis failed to return nearly 70 percent of the shares borrowed on the settlement day for the short trades, with about half of these transactions having to be covered by new shares bought in the public offering.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bei Hu in Hong Kong at bhu5@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net
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