(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel will hire Torq Capital Management’s Chief Investment Officer Avinash Abraham to expand its Asia equities team. 

The hedge fund veteran is returning to Citadel as a portfolio manager after 15 years, according to a company statement. He will join the Asia fundamental equities team at a time when Citadel is expanding in the region, tripling its staff to about 200 since 2019. 

Abraham has been a high-profile figure within the industry, attracting seed investment from Joe Tsai-backed Blue Pool Capital when he started Torq Capital in 2016 to focus on Asian market-neutral strategies. He grew the firm to $1.5 billion from an initial capital of $160 million, with a team of almost 30 staff in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Citadel is hiring Abraham for “his strong track record as a portfolio manager and deep experience as a business builder,” said Sachin Kewalramani, head of Asia fundamental equities. 

Citadel’s international equities division has more than 13 teams and 80 investment professionals covering 800 companies. The firm managed $56 billion of investment capital as of Jan. 1, with its flagship Wellington fund gaining 15.3% last year. 

Torq Capital has started a wind down of its operations and will return capital to investors over the next few months, Chief Operating Officer Kendall Johnson said in an emailed statement. The company had annualized returns of about 10% net of fees through October 2021, but the subsequent two years were roughly flat on average. 

Abraham worked at Citadel between 2005 and 2009 after beginning his career as an investment banking analyst at Merrill Lynch. He also had stints at Och-Ziff Capital Management and Balyasny Asset Management, where he served as head of Asia. 

Abraham said he was “thrilled to return home” at a time when Citadel “has grown significantly in the APAC region.”

(Updates with comments from Torq Capital in sixth paragraph)

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