Following the recent launch of Samena Capital Japan Fund, the firm is acquiring a successful Asian investment team to further align talents with leading business personalities and wealth creators, thereby bringing to life Samena's buy and build approach to asset management companies.

Collective investment firm Samena Capital has acquired Vision Asia Pacific Limited (VAP) an Asian fund management group with the intention of providing the firm with the platform to expand into Asia.

VAP is a subsidiary of Vision Investment Management, a Hong-Kong headquartered investment firm, including VAP's investment team and US$75m in assets in a five-year closed ended fund. Through a convertible structure, Vision intends to become a shareholder of Samena Capital.

VAP's Angel Fund was one of the few globally to return positive performance to its investors in 2008.

Shirish Saraf, president and founder of Samena Capital said: "The VAP transaction brings to life Samena's buy and build model of investment management, through which we gather premier investment teams under our umbrella and then apply our expertise and access to opportunities to achieve a step-change in their returns. Leveraging the $50m in equity with which we capitalised our management company, we are determined to create a meaningful Asian platform which allows us to unlock the value opportunities sourced by our SAMENA-wide shareholder base for the benefit of those investing in our funds.

"The reason we deviated from traditional thinking of keeping minimal equity capital in the management company was because from early last year we saw the opportunity to consolidate and buy stakes in exciting asset management platforms that we could help grow to the next level; there could be no better time in our industry to acquire or consolidate.

Atul Punj, chairman of Samena Capital and founder of Punj Lloyd, an Indian engineering and construction company, added: "We believe that investors are increasingly looking for a different value proposition and long term sustainable value will only be created through the alignment of business entrepreneurs and asset managers in the value creation exercise. In uncertain and changing times, industry insights, knowledge and networks become critical, especially in an era where value will be created from 'operational enhancement' in companies rather than 'fancy financial engineering'."