Investors are flocking to some of the newer hedge funds in Asia as regional hiring in the sector looks set to pick up in 2015.
Last year startup firms such as BosValen Asset Management, Pleiad Investment Advisors and Guard Capital Management raised hundreds of millions of dollars each within a few months, reports Bloomberg. Oryza Capital and Pine River China Fund have expanded at least eight times since launching in the second half of 2013. Their performance contrasts to the more lethargic Asian average – it takes almost two years for a hedge fund’s assets to increase to $250m from $50m, according to Eurekahedge.
“There’s a supply of money coming back to Asia and that’s unprecedented,” Myo Schollum, Asia Pacific head of prime services coverage at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg. In 2014, Asia ex-Japan investing hedge funds outperformed their global peers and funds run by Singapore-based Quantedge Capital and Dymon Asia Capital were among the 10 best performing in the world.
Buy-side recruiters in Asia say hedge-fund headcounts in the region are set to expand on the back of this performance. “The recruitment market is buoyant,” Jamie Thorpe, head of fund management for Asia Pacific at search firm Selby Jennings, told us. COOs, compliance officers, quantitative researchers, analysts and technologists are in particular demand.
If you’re a trader on the sell side, however, breaking into the Asian hedge-fund sector remains difficult. In a region accounting for only about 4% of global capital in the industry, front-office vacancies are still far exceeded by number of sell-side candidates who aspire to a hedge-fund career.
Meanwhile
The president of China Minsheng Banking Corporation, Mao Xiaofeng, has resigned. The bank says it’s for personal reasons, but Chinese publications say he assisting the country’s anti-corruption investigators. (New York Times)
The latest contender to replace Standard Chartered CEO Peter Sands is Simon Cooper, chief executive of global commercial banking at HSBC. (Telegraph)
Two former forex traders are charged in Singapore for cheating HSBC, Deutsche Bank. (Business Times)
Former RBS chief executive Stephen Hester says Brian Hartzer will bring a “tough edge” to his new role as the boss of Westpac. (Sydney Morning Herald)
Chinese regulator orders Founder Securities to change its directors, supervisors. (South China Morning Post)
Bank lending falls in Singapore. (Channel News Asia)
Singapore’s unemployment rate was 2% in 2014, according to new Ministry of Manpower data. (Asia One)
Former navy boss becomes head of Singapore’s Central Provident Fund. (Today)
China clamps down on the teaching of “Western values” at its universities. (Financial Times)