By Summer Zhen and Kane Wu

HONG KONG, June 24 (Reuters) - ExodusPoint Capital Management will push further into Asian equities by taking on most of Ovata Capital Management's team as the Hong Kong-based hedge fund winds down, people familiar with the matter said.

Ovata founder James Chen and much of his team will join larger U.S. multi-strategy hedge fund ExodusPoint in the third quarter, according to one of the sources, adding that Ovata has around 40 people.

Ovata manages about $1.5 billion, while ExodusPoint manages around $14.5 billion.

Chen will become ExodusPoint's head of Asia equities, working together with Steve Xu, who leads ExodusPoint's Asia macro strategy, said the source, who was not authorised to talk to media and declined to be identified.

Ovata's closure is the latest example of smaller players being squeezed out amid an intensifying war for top hedge fund talent and rising operating costs, market participants said.

Jain Global in April decided to return all cash to investors and manage money ​exclusively for Millennium Management.

ExodusPoint declined to comment. Ovata did not reply to a request for comment.

Bloomberg first reported the Ovata team would be joining ExodusPoint.

Founded in 2017, Ovata focused on Asian equities across five core strategies including arbitrage, relative value, event, long/short, and capital markets, according to the firm's LinkedIn page.

Ovata returned about 10% for the year through May. ExodusPoint was up 4% for the period.

ExodusPoint started in 2017 by Michael Gelband and Hyung Lee who formerly worked for Millennium. It has grown to 100 portfolio manager teams with eight offices globally.