2010 has seen a wave of hedge fund startups spring up in Asia. And as the size of the region’s alternatives industry deepens, so the level of manager expertise seems to be.
2010 has seen a wave of hedge fund startups spring up in Asia. And as the size of the region’s alternatives industry deepens, so the level of manager expertise seems to be. In its recent monthly newsletter, Singapore-based GFIA pte ltd. detailed the findings of a study showing that many of the funds rolled out this year were started by second generation hedge fund managers. Many of who possessed firsthand knowledge and expertise having spun away from larger hedge fund houses or successful boutiques. The newsletter’s findings detailed that of the 18 funds looked at, five were not newly setup management companies and, more pertinently, of the 13 companies reviewed this quarter, only two included portfolio managers with no prior hedge fund management experience. The newsletter also contained findings that after the financial crisis, correlations in equity l/s strategies appeared to increase whilst non-equity l/s strategies maintained low cross-correlations. Peter Douglas CAIA (pictured), principal of GFIA, commented on how the Asian hedge fund landscape was changing rapidly, saying that new managers knew their trade already and that they didn’t accept that a hedge fund “should be naturally net long or an extension of a mutual fund”.
