Blue Rice Investment Management (BRIM) is pleased to announce its strategic partnership with NewAlpha Asset Management, the Paris-based global hedge fund incubation specialist with an investment into the BRIM Asian Credit Fund as of 1st May 2011.

Launched in December 2009, BRIM Asian Credit Fund implements an actively managed, absolute return, Asian credit focused strategy, covering both high grade and high yield securities. The Fund invests primarily in US$ denominated Asian debt securities issued by sovereign, financial and corporate issuers. It avoids local currencies, single name equities and defaulted securities.

The BRIM Asian Credit Fund is managed out of Singapore by a team of 6 investment professionals led by Guan Ong, who benefits from a deep Asia knowledge and 20+ years' experience including managing Asian credit portfolios for significant institutions, namely Prudential in Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong (1998-2006) and Korea's sovereign fund, Korea Investment Corp (KIC), where Guan Ong was its Chief Investment Officer from 2006 to 2009.

BRIM's guiding investment philosophy is based on a rigorous bottom up analysis of credit fundamentals driven by an experienced internal credit research team.

As an asset class, Asian credit offers very attractive prospects to investors due to strong creditworthiness of governments, households and private sector, steady long term growth drivers and a limited impact from the recent global credit crisis.

BRIM entered in its first partnership with Woori Absolute Partners (WAP) in 2009. WAP is a wholly owned subsidiary of Woori Investment & Securities, which is listed on the Korean Exchange (KRX) and is an affiliate of the Woori Financial Group, which is listed on the KRX and the NYSE. The Woori Financial Group is Korea's largest financial concern by total combined assets.