Bloomberg – 21st Century Asset Management Co., run by former Nomura Asset Management Co. executive Takanori Shimizu, said it may seek growth through takeovers after the worst year on record for hedge funds.

Shimizu, 63, said he will also cut costs as the Tokyo-based firm strives to boost assets under management to 40 billion yen ($440 million) by the end of March 2010, from 14 billion yen as at Dec. 31, 2008.

“We are carefully considering possible cost cuts just like any other firm,” Shimizu said in an interview yesterday. “Acquiring another asset management firm to boost our assets may be a good strategy and we’re always on the lookout.”

The global credit crisis forced as many as 920 hedge funds out of business last year while the tally of job losses at financial firms worldwide reached 269,000. Last week, Rheos Capital Works Inc., a Tokyo-based hedge fund, said it would sell a majority stake to IS Holdings Inc. to weather the slowdown.

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Bloomberg – Kanetsu Asset Management Co. will liquidate hedge funds, including Japan’s best performer last year, as commodities trading shrinks, a company executive said.

The Tokyo-based firm will shut DragonHorse, which according to data provider Eurekahedge Pte returned 27 percent in 2008, the highest among Japan-based hedge funds. Kanetsu Asset will also close two other hedge funds before the firm shuts at the end of March, because computer-driven trading of commodities has become less viable as volumes have declined, President Takashi Ogura said in a telephone interview today.

As many as 920 funds globally may have closed last year, eclipsing the previous record of 848, according to Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. Japan’s dwindling commodities market and regulatory hurdles to combining commodities trading with financial securities hindered Kanetsu Asset, which had 800 million yen ($8.9 million) in assets.

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Tags: asset management co, assets, bloomberg, commodities market, commodities trading, company executive, data-provider, eurekahedge, financial securities, hedge-fund-research, japan, kanetsu, ogura, regulatory hurdles, takashi, telephone-interview, tokyo, yen