Asia experiences wave of hedge fund startups, "Which is exactly what we saw post the Asian crisis?"

Peter Douglas, principal of GFIA, a Singapore-based consulting firm, said that the rebound of Asian hedge funds as seen by these startups, is similar to the developments post the last Asian crisis: “A lot of the great names of the Asian hedge fund industry were actually set up around the end of the Asian crisis. They were very small for a number of years, before they finally attracted attention and started to gain critical mass. Look at funds like Artradis in Singapore, or LIM or ADM in Hong Kong - a lot of what are now the biggest established managers actually started as small boutiques post the Asian crisis, running very small amounts of money for quite long periods.”

The 2009 Singapore Roundtable took place at the local office of Customhouse Group, who also sponsored the event. The following hedge fund managers, experts and hedge fund investors participated:

1. Zack Kembar, COO, Capstone Investment Advisors (Singapore)

2. Christian Stauffer, Portfolio Manager, LH Asian Trade Finance Fund

3. Daren Riley, Co-Founder, Riley Paterson Investment Management

4. Daryl Ee, Director for Alternative Investments, BNP Paribas Asset Management Singapore

5. Peter Douglas, Principal, GFIA

6. Han Seng Low, Investment Management Division, United Overseas Bank Limited

7. Dermot Butler, Chairman of Custom House Global Fund Services

8. Han Ming Ho, Partner, Clifford Chance

9. Prof. Melvyn Teo, Centre Director for BNP Paribas HF Centre at Singapore Management University

The Opalesque Singapore Roundtable can be downloaded here:

http://www.opalesque.com/Roundtable/RoundtableSING09.html

All other previously published Opalesque Roundtable Scripts can be accessed here:

http://www.opalesque.com/index.php?act=archiveRT

This 30 page Opalesque Roundtable also discusses other important aspects on the make-up and developments of the Asian hedge fund industry like:

l  What is the opportunity set the new Asian start-up managers are targeting? What is their typical profile?

l  How has Singapore as an investment management center evolved over the last year?  Did you know that the most recent regulatory initiatives aim to establish Singapore as a fund domicile?

l  Why should you "hire your risk manager from Singapore, and your trader from Hong Kong", as the saying goes?  What are the underlying reasons for such cultural differences?

l  Read how hedge fund managers explain the dynamics of the natural healing process which occurs in Asia when the marginal investor, the foreigner, has gone - and how to profit from it.

l  The consensus is that the Asian hedge fund industry is going to produce good performance numbers mid-term - who are the investors who participate in the upswing?

l  What is the margin by which Asian focused hedge funds with head or research offices in their investment regions have outperformed their U.S. or U.K. counterparts - and why?

About Opalesque:

Matthias Knab, Director of Opalesque Ltd, moderates the Opalesque Roundtables. Matthias Knab is an internationally recognized expert on hedge funds and alternatives.

In 2003, with the publication of its daily Alternative Market Briefing, Opalesque successfully launched an information revolution in the hedge fund media space: "Opalesque changed the world by bringing transparency where there was opacity and by delivering an accurate professional reporting service." - Nigel Blanchard, Culross. This hybrid financial news service, which combines proprietary industry news stories and filtered third party reports, has been credited by many industry insiders with delivering precise, accurate, and vital information to a notoriously guarded audience.

Each week, Opalesque publications are read by more than 600,000 industry professionals in over 130 countries.  Opalesque is the only daily hedge fund publisher which is actually read by the elite managers themselves (http://www.opalesque.com/op_testimonials.html).