A new report by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has revealed that, as of end-September 2010, assets in Hong Kong’s hedge funds had climbed y-o-y by
A new report by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has revealed that, as of end-September 2010, assets in Hong Kong’s hedge funds had climbed y-o-y by 14 per cent. As of end-March ’09 assets totalled USD55.3billion: by end-September ’10 that figure had climbed to USD63.2billion. This is still some way off the high-water mark of ’08 when assets peaked at USD90.1billion. To illustrate the growth of its alternatives market, the number of SFC-licensed hedge fund managers stood at 538 end-September, a near five-fold since 2004. The study found that multi-strategy (34.2 per cent) and equity l/s (30.6 per cent) remained the most popular strategies, with Managed Futures (0.1 per cent) by far the least popular. Within multi-strategy, equity l/s, event-driven and convertible bond arbitrage strategies were found to be the most common. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of AUM committed to Hong Kong hedge funds (over 60 per cent) came from US and European investors, of which Fund of Funds (24.5 per cent) and HNW individuals/family offices (19 per cent) were the most active investors. Two thirds of Hong Kong’s AUM was focused on the Asia Pacific markets. In terms of stratigraphy, over half (57 per cent) of Hong Kong hedgies were managing assets of USD100million or less as of end-September, with just 29.5 per cent managing AUM of USD101million to USD500 million. If investor interest stays strong, expect to see the number of funds managing AUM of USD100million+ increase over the near-term.
