Ex-BlueBay veteran's hedge fund Goldbridge shuts down

By Nishant Kumar

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - Goldbridge Capital Partners, the hedge fund manager founded by two former BlueBay Asset Management veterans, has shut, one of its key investors said on Monday, following losses in its fixed income hedge fund last year.

Goldbridge, launched in 2011 by former BlueBay fund managers Gina Germano and Dipankar Shewaram, with backing from Northill Capital (Other OTC: CGHC - news) , managed less than $200 million, one source close to the company said. Shewaram left the firm last year, records with Britain's Financial Conduct Authority showed.

"The Goldbridge Capital Partners board took the decision to close Goldbridge earlier this year, and wind down the Goldbridge Credit Value fund," Northill said in a statement on behalf of Goldbridge.

"This decision was based on an assessment of the direction and relative position of the firm by the Goldbridge shareholders who concluded that they would not provide further capital to the business," the statement added.

Hedge funds were hit hard in Europe last year due to poor returns and rising costs as a result of a growing regulatory burden. They gained just 0.7 percent on average, leading to a record number shutting.

The Goldbridge Credit Value Fund invested in European sub-investment grade debt and was down about 2 percent last year, underperforming a near 4 percent gain in fixed income hedge funds tracked by Eurekahedge.

Goldbridge joins the likes of Bramshott Capital, BlueBay and OVS Capital who have all shut down hedge funds since last year.

In Europe, investors pulled about $15 billion from hedge funds in the second half of the year and $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2015 after investing about $35 billion in the first half of 2014, data from Eurekahedge showed. (Editing by Alison Williams)