Verition Expands Asian Presence with Hire of Yen Rates Trader Kobayashi

(Bloomberg) — Verition Fund Management LLC, a $9.9 billion multistrategy hedge fund firm, has announced the hiring of Shin Kobayashi, a former Citigroup Inc. Employee, as a portfolio manager specializing in yen rates trading. Verition’s expansion into Asia follows the departure of over a dozen yen rates specialists from global banks in the past 18 months due to the Bank of Japan’s decision to scrap negative interest rates and bond yield-curve control, creating lucrative trading opportunities. Verition has also recently hired Hao Long, a former New York-based Asia equity capital markets head at Citadel’s Surveyor Capital unit, Yasutaka Kuga, a former employee of Schonfeld Strategic Advisors, and John Asher, a previous employee of Millennium Management. The company now has approximately 50 workers spread equally between Singapore and Hong Kong, with plans to increase staff numbers by at least 20% by the end of the year.