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Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

Fresh from its victory to oust Viacom’s chief executive officer Philippe Dauman last month, SpringOwl Asset Management has announced plans to launch an activist hedge fund that invests in real estate, financial services, consumer and technology companies in the fourth quarter, Reuters reported.

SpringOwl Asset, founded by Jason Ader and Andrew Wallach in 2013, has reported earnings between 20% and 40% this year, beating the average activist hedge fund’s return of 5.6%. The fund is managing about $140m in managed accounts for wealthy families.

"We've written lots of white papers on our ideas and then we go talk to our investors, and with the structure of a new fund, we can commit that much more quickly," Ader was quoted as saying. He added that he plans to raise several hundred million dollars more and set a cap at $2bn.

However, industry insiders said that activist funds are facing difficulty raising funds as newcomers crowd the space. Data from Hedge Fund Research showed that assets allocated into activist funds fell by about 6% in the first six months of 2016 to $112.4bn.

But Ader remains confident, "Activist strategies are out of favor right now because funds got too big, were mostly investing in the United States, had poor liquidity terms and are volatile. We tried to addre......................

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