Opalesque Hong Kong Roundtable - High Net Worth Investors May Offer Biggest Growth Potential for Hedge Funds Today

New York, NY, June 06, 2013 --(PR.com)-- The last five years have undoubtedly been challenging for the Asian hedge fund industry. In this period we have been through two of the worst years ever seen in the history of hedge funds: 2008 and 2011. While performance has not been great, hedge funds in Asia have outperformed the Asian equity market, which is a much overlooked fact. A more structural issue that Asian managers have had to face is that net inflow into the industry has since 2008 come from pension funds and endowments, and these investors are finding it difficult to identify funds in Asia that meet their investment criteria.

Private clients are at the moment generally very underweight hedge funds, not just in Asia but globally. For a medium risk investment portfolio, an institution like Citi Private Bank recommends a 16% allocation to hedge funds. That means there is a large gap between where high net worth investors are allocated to today and where their advisors suggest it should be. The high net worth sector may well offer the biggest growth potential for the hedge fund industry today, in Asia and elsewhere.

The Opalesque 2013 Hong Kong Roundtable took place April 29th at the office of law firm Bingham and sponsored by Bingham McCutchen, Eurex and Taussig Capital, and united the following experts:

1. Thor Monsen, Director, Citi Private Bank
2. Jessica McCarroll, Co-CIO, Silverhorn Advisors
3. Carl Wong, Vice President and Head of Credit Research, Samena Capital
4. Eric Wong, Director, TCG Family Office
5. Andrew Ballingal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ballingal Investment Advisors
6. Anne-Marie Godfrey, Partner, Bingham McCutchen
7. Markus Georgi, Head of Representative Office, Eurex

In this transcript, you will read about:

• Andrew Ballingal on global and Asian investment themes not to miss
• What are the four key secular growth themes Asia offers right now?
• Why is the turnaround in Japan is for real?
• A family office's rather untypical strategy of building out a rather large in-house prop trading operation
• Liquid Alternatives in Asia: Relative value strategies
• Evolution and opportunities in Asian credit
• Eurex to offer access to TAIEX options and futures
• Huge opportunities serving 2nd and 3rd tier Chinese institutions
• What hedge fund strategies are Citi Private Bank advisors interested in?
• Regulatory Update: Why AIFM Directive compliant fund structures will become a brand in themselves? What are some of the additional requirements the Hong Kong SFC has recently introduced?
• How are Asian family offices different from Western family offices?

Access the Opalesque Roundtable Series - Hong Kong 2013: http://www.opalesque.com/RT/RoundtableHK2013.html

The Opalesque Roundtable Series highlights fundamental developments within the global hedge fund and alternative investment industry, a full archive with over 80 Roundtable scripts can be accessed here: http://www.opalesque.com/Archive-Roundtable.html

Matthias Knab, founder of Opalesque and internationally recognized expert on hedge funds and alternatives, moderates the Opalesque Roundtables.