Indonesia Has Many Hedge Funds, Few Risk Takers
Monday, July 17, 2006 : PermalinkBloomberg – Ananda Siregar, a 31-year-old, first- generation entrepreneur, has given up a cushy hedge-fund job to plunge into business.
And that makes him something of a rare breed in Indonesia.
In September, Siregar will take a leap of faith by opening the first of what he hopes will grow into a chain of multiplex theaters in the archipelago, which at present has just one large cinema operator.
In the process, Quvat Management Pte, a new private-equity fund that’s backing Siregar, will risk its money on a start-up.
And that, too, is uncommon in an economy where true risk- taking has, for the last several years, played second fiddle to making quick returns from increasing the value of existing businesses.
Distressed banks and coal mines, the flotsam of the 1997-98 financial crisis, have brought immense profits to global investors. At the same time, the flow of funds into genuine, job- creating entrepreneurship has suffered.