Ted Kang, one of the founding members of Tiger Asia Management, has started Kylin Management and is readying an Asian long/short equity fund. Kylin is planning to roll out the Kylin Fund and its offshore equivalent in April. It will mainly invest in equities in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, according to a Credit Suisse prime brokerage document.

Kang joined Julian Robertson's famed Tiger Management in 2001 and later helped launch Tiger Asia. He was responsible for all research in Korea, Japan and China. Kang's partner in the venture is Yusuke Suzuki, who was a director responsible for Japan at Tiger Asia. Also working at Kylin is Kei Nagashima, who was a senior analyst at Tiger Asia.

The fund will focus initially on companies that generate substantial revenue from domestic sales such as telecommunication, internet, media, financial and retail concerns. It is likely to have 40-60% of its gross exposure to Japan, 30-50% to Korea, 20-40% to Greater China and 0-20% outside of these three main areas. Besides taking short positions in stocks, the fund may also hedge the overall portfolio using index options or futures. Currency risk will be hedged using currency forward contracts.

The fund will have a $1 million investment minimum for individuals and a $5 million threshold for institutions. There will be a 1.5% management fee and a 20% performance fee.