A pair of Merrill Lynch veterans has co-founded an Asian distressed-debt new hedge fund shop.

Opvs Group will launch its first two funds next month. Both aim to buy Asian loans and bonds at distressed prices as banks and other hedge funds dump the assets is a desperate attempt to get them off their books, Reuters reports.

“Asia has been sold off in line with the rest of the world,” Opvs co-founder Barry Dick told the news agency. “It really looks like a case of the baby thrown out with the bathwater.”

Opvs will first launch its Asia Opportunity Fund, which has been seeded with US$50 million and ends its first round of fundraising tomorrow. The new vehicle will buy bonds of closely-held, high-growth companies in the region, including India and Australia. The bonds will be held until maturity, with distributions paid out every six months after its first year.

The firm will quickly follow with its second offering, which will invest in more liquid publicly-traded bonds, including a short book. The Fundamental Asia Credit Fund will also debut with US$50 million, with a capacity of US$300 million.

Singapore-based Opvs was founded last year by Dick, former Asia head of debt products distribution at Merrill, and three others, including his one-time Merrill colleague Chris Francis, who headed both Asian credit and equities research. The other co-founders are Sandeep Gill, former global credit derivatives head at DBS Global Holdings, and Tommy Kim, co-founder of HFG Investments. The quartet have hired more than 20 professionals to staff the new firm.