Lexington Herald-Leader – A city-based investment firm is launching what is likely the first hedge fund headquartered here. But don’t think that Ambit Funding’s small town location dictates modestgoals.

“We expect to be able to compete with some of the big boys in New York,” said managing director Benjamin Shoval last week from Denver, where he was attending a conference.

The Ambit Bridge Loan Fund and the Ambit Bridge Loan Fund International aren’t the first ventures for Shoval in the highly lucrative world of hedge funds. He managed three funds starting in 2000 but eventually shut them down. “I returned the capital to investors,” he said, rather than tackle a major expansion to compete in the industry.

The 29-year-old also decided enjoying life as a single person living in New York was preferable to the grind of running a bigger business.

“I learned a lot from the experience,” he said. “The people I dealt with as investors, suppliers and peers were very smart, interesting and hard working.”

Shoval will manage the new funds with his father, Y. Judd Shoval, and William Levinski. The elder Shoval has built Shoval Enterprises into a financial powerhouse that includes GUARD Insurance Group, GUARD Security Bank and real estate projects.

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