The formation of a separate research division by HFA Asset Management two years ago is starting to pay dividends – the hedge fund operator having won a large institutional mandate from the Vision Super super fund.

Vision Super, a $3 billion Victorian-based fund, has awarded HFA $60 million for its international shares fund, a multi-manager long/short equity fund invested across sectors and styles. It is not the first institutional mandate for HFA but the bulk of the firm’s $1.25 billion under management has come from the retail market. Peter Coates, HFA senior investment manager, said monthly retail inflows had been running at between $20 million and $30 million. He said that since the formation of HFA Research as a specialist division, the company had been more proactive in the institutional market. “We have received a great deal of interest in this fund from such groups wishing to reduce their risk to international equities, diversifying away from directional market exposure, into a much more active absolute return-focused fund,” he said. HFA is about to embark on a new raising of about $100 million for its Accelerator Plus Ltd (APL) retail product, which had its first raising of about $85 million last year. APL is an unlisted investment company, however, after the next raising it is expected that HFA will apply for a listing to give investors greater liquidity.