San Diego-based Torrey Pines Capital Management, the $510 million global long/short equity manager, last month opened up its new Torrey Pines Asia Fund to investors after three months of trading with internal capital.

The $10 million Asia-only long/short fund returned 4.71% net for the fourth quarter and was up an estimated 1.3% net last month.

Like Torrey Pine’s flagship Global Equity Fund, the pan-Asia offering employs fundamental, bottom-up analysis with a top-down overlay. The fund takes an opportunistic approach to investing in mid- to large-cap names and is managed by Cosmo D’Agostino, partner and long-time Asia portfolio manager on the Global Fund.

“We like transparency and liquidity and we don’t have any geographic focus, so our version of Asia includes Japan, Australia and New Zealand,” said Janice Kary, director.
 
Kay said the fund, which is currently less than 10% net long, is banking on the current volatility within the region for short opportunities.

“Beginning in the third quarter of last year, through the present is a good time to put on shorts in the region,” she said. “It was very hard to make money on the short side in Asia in 2007 and 2006 but now, we think there are opportunities on both sides.”

The Asia Fund charges a 1.5% management fee and a 20% incentive fee with a $1 million minimum investment requirement, and has a soft one-year lockup.

Kay also mentioned that a European long/short fund may be in the offing by the end of the year but declined to offer further specifications.