Hedge Fund Intelligence Hong Kong 2014 | Page 6

OVERVIEW HONG KONG 2014

HONG KONG 2014 OVERVIEW

KEY FACTS

New Asian hedge fund assets,
2013: by location of manager

Hong Kong
Singapore
UK
Australia

USA
China
Japan
Other

New Asian hedge fund assets under management: by location of manager
Country
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013

H1 H2 H1 H2 H1 H2 H1 H2 H1 H2 H1 H2

$m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m $m
UK
140 58 25 274
0
0
0
10 38 36 297 0*
Australia 331 40 64 40 64 35 157 79 56 200 94 162
Japan
13
5 48 151 45
0 56
0 40
0 28 72
Singapore 515 123 317 334 262 411 764 188 192 59 246 224
USA
49
0
10 161 62
0
0
16 70 110 136 40
Hong Kong 1,414 150 612 500 1,897 532 2,098 1,023 3,094 795 545 1,481
China
0
0
10
10 250
0
15
10
0 24 98 20
Other
87 49 34
10 174 118
0
15
12
13 20 388
Total 2,549 426 1,120 1,481 2,753 1,096 3,091 1,341 3,501 1,237 1,464 2,388
Source: AsiaHedge Database and survey. Figures have been rounded *assets undisclosed

6 Special Report March 2014

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Hong Kong’s continued leadership of the Asian hedge fund industry is easy
enough to explain. Moody’s sums up the territory’s economic pre-eminence in
its most recent review, pointing to its “very high per capita income and competitiveness in a number of areas, including financial services and international trade”. The review added: “In addition, Hong Kong’s institutions are very
strong in the areas of governance, rule of law and transparency.”
No other regional centre, say bankers, can match Hong Kong for these sound
economic and regulatory fundamentals, backed by an outstanding infrastructure and a favourable geographical location.
“Hong Kong is the dominant hedge fund centre in
Asia,” says Vasundhara Pradeep, managing director
of prime services, Asia-Pacific, at Credit Suisse in
Hong Kong. “This is closely followed by Singapore
which, in addition to local managers, has seen a
growing number of Japanese managers establishing
a presence for regulatory reasons.”
Singapore, say local bankers, is no longer perceived
as offering regulatory advantages relative to Hong
Kong, which was the case some years ago. They also
say that although Singapore has now reportedly
become a more expensive centre than Hong Kong,
the cost differences between Asia’s two premier
investment management hubs are not a decisive Chris Nash, chief operating
officer, Senrigan Capital
factor for funds establishing a regional presence.
Instead, the location of the region’s hedge funds >> Historically, credit
seems to be driven principally by their strategy. and interest rate-driven
“Historically, credit and interest rate-driven stratestrategies have tended
gies have tended to gravitate towards Singapore,
while equity funds have been in Hong Kong,” says to gravitate towards
Chris Nash, chief operating officer at the Hong Singapore, while equity
Kong-based event-driven manager, Senrigan Capital. funds have been in
According to the latest AsiaHedge asset survey Hong Kong >>
published this month, Hong Kong continues to be
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March 2014 Special Report 7