QAL race down to three | SPC Global in merger talk | Regal healthcare buff launches fund

Good evening,

Two former Regal stock pickers are set to launch a long/short fund that would hunt for the best (or worst) healthcare companies trading on Asian stock exchanges, after securing a $70 million-plus cheque from an overseas institutional investor.

Street Talk understands Regal’s healthcare portfolio manager Craig Collie, who left the firm in April, is busy setting up a speciality fund alongside former colleague Madusha Dilshan Seneviratna. Both trained as medical doctors before jumping ship to funds management.

Collie has registered an entity dubbed Coronet Investments Pty Ltd with the corporate regulator and secured an Australian Financial Services Licence. Co-manager Seneviratna is a former pediatrics doctor at Westmead Children’s Hospital.

The pair will run a market neutral strategy that would take its picks from publicly traded biotechs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare providers in the Asia Pacific.

Read the full story tomorrow and more on the Street Talk page.

SPC Global is in merger discussions with the ASX-listed Original Juice Company as part of a push by the iconic fruit and food processor to diversify its product offering, venture into new markets and strengthen its Australian presence. Investment bank Barrenjoey Capital Partners is understood to be advising on the deal.

Australia’s sharemarket fell for the first time in eight sessions on Monday, led by a sell-off in the supermarket giants, as investors took some money off the table before the Reserve Bank’s board meeting.

Click here for the latest equity market wrap.