Hong Kong hedge fund Polymer hired a portfolio manager from Balyasny
Polymer Capital, a Hong Kong hedge fund launched in 2019, has big plans for growth. Early last year, Reuters reported that it planned to launch two new Japan-focused funds, with one involving a team of ~30 portfolio managers (PMs). Going into 2026, Japan still seems a big focus, but the fund has also been shoring up its ranks at home.
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Last week, Watson Lau joined the fund as a portfolio manager based in Hong Kong. He spent the last two years at Balyasny in Hong Kong, working on its long/short equities fund. Before that, he was an investment analyst at Steve Cohen's hedge fund, Point72, for seven years.
Polymer made a few senior PM in the latter half of last year. In September, it hired Larry Cho, a former Millennium PM who was most recently head of research at Xingtai Capital, another Hong Kong hedge fund. He was out of the market since the end of 2024, however.
In July, Polymer brought in Tokyo-based portfolio manager Takehiro Yamamoto from SMBC's asset management arm, where he was chief portfolio manager for its ESG equity long/short fund. The fund is continuing to hire in Japan this year, hiring business development specialists in the country to recruit PMs.
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