Citigroup Alternative Investments is seeding a new hedge fund run by Viathon Capital. Viathom recently launched the Whitewater Master Fund, a credit opportunity fund focused on non-correlated absolute returns.

The fund employs a fundamental, credit-intensive research process aimed at identifing long and short investment opportunities in the United States and Europe. The fund’s objective is to seek long term capital appreciation by investing in high yield and investment grade corporate bonds and bank debt.

The fund launched in May of 2009 with $50 million in capital and had a net return of +0.92 % for the month of May and estimates +2.10% for June, which would bring its inception-to-date return to approximately +3.02%

The Viathon Capital team includes four investment professionals and two trade support/back office personnel with backgrounds from Marathon Asset Management, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Neuberger Berman, SAC/Sigma, Providence Investment Management and Lehman Brothers.

Specifically, Robert Comizio serves as a partner and CIO, Robert Becker as partner and COO, Carl Loschert  as a portfolio manager, Rad Antonov  as a senior analyst, Frank Wang  as an operations manager, and Teresa Taylor  as an associate.

The Whitewater Master Fund has instituted several key initiatives including a premium on liquidity, high level of transparency and a modest amount of leverage all designed to service the needs of sophisticated intuitional and private bank investors. The fund employs an independent administrator and two prime brokers.