In this report, we take a look at how the new rules for onshore funds in the European Union – under the UCITS III requirements – are being used by managers from both backgrounds to create a new class of investments, and one that looks sure to grow.
In the last two years the world has experienced an extraordinary financial upheaval, yet, throughout this recent period the Scandinavian industry has seen an expansion of assets as well as new funds – and, to a large degree, has even managed to prosper.
Assets in global hedge funds slipped a further 5.7% during the first half of 2009 to reach a total figure of $1.72 trillion by July, according to the latest research conducted by HedgeFund Intelligence.
The managed account solution will not perhaps be for everyone - it has its limits, as we also explain in this report. But it does seem that it will be more popular again, at least in the foreseeable future. To find out why, please read on.
The global financial crisis has posed a tremendous challenge to everybody in the financial sector these past two years. And it may be fair to say that even alternative investment strategies such as hedge funds, which are intended to deliver returns uncorrelated to the direction of markets, have struggled to cope – leaving many investors disappointed with the results. However, there has been one major section of the alternative investment strategy universe – namely, the domain of quantitative trading, and of systematic managed futures in particular.
After coping remarkably well with the challenges of 2007, the global hedge fund industry faced an extraordinarily difficult year in 2008. Tumultuous market conditions, resulting from the devastating impact of the worldwide credit crunch, meant that hedge fund managers were forced to devise survival strategies in order to cope with the most difficult environment in the history of the industry.
Hong Kong hedge funds lie at the heart of the broader regional Asia-Pacific hedge fund industry and epitomise what managers are experiencing right now during this global financial crisis. Managers are facing up to stark issues of survival as they assess what they must do to adapt their operations to the new financial paradigm and subsequently profit from the recovery that will follow.
The growth of assets in hedge funds stalled during the first half of 2008, with the global total edging up only very narrowly to just under $2.7 trillion, according to the latest analysis of the HedgeFund Intelligence database and our associated mid-year surveys.
Since the dawn of the global hedge fund industry, Switzerland has played a vital role as a significant allocator of capital to hedge fund managers in all the major investment hubs. Many of the country’s leading private banks pioneered a route into the new asset class at a time when many investors elsewhere were still trying to come to grips with the hedge fund concept. As one of the key wealth management centres, Switzerland has built up an enviable position, over the succeeding decades, where it now accounts for almost one-third of global fund of hedge funds assets.
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