Reuters – David Bonderman, one of the the most influential figures in the U.S. private equity industry, said on Thursday his firm, buyout giant TPG Capital , wanted to buy debt assets offloaded by troubled hedge funds.

Bonderman, speaking at the Asian Venture Capital Journal (AVCJ) conference, also said a global recession would be deep and prolonged, and the U.S. housing market would probably fall further.

"When people are giving you debt that is grossly mis-priced, you opt to take it," he said at the conference in Hong Kong.

Volatile markets have forced hedge funds to sell off assets and securities to pay back investors who are keen to scale back on risk and hold cash.

But private equity firms typically have long-term investors, with up to 10-year lock-up periods.

"Since a lot of hedge funds have a side pocket with a two- to three- to four-year lock-up period, that means that liquid assets are under great pressure," Bonderman said. "And guys like us who have the capital should be buying them."

Asia would emerge from the global downturn earlier than elsewhere and was well-positioned for recovery, said Bonderman, TPG’s founding partner.

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Reuters – In spite of suffering more than most markets in the global downturn, hedge funds are likely to bounce back faster than other markets.

That is the view of Barclay’s Capital director Frank Gerhard whose company is a major player in the regional hedge fund market and is in the process of launching a Sharia-compliant hedge fund platform along with Sharia Capital.

"We have been running a roadshow around the region and there is still a lot of institutional and high net worth individual interest in the sector.

"What we are likely to see is hedge funds bouncing back in the first quarter of next year even if equity markets remain depressed.

"Each time there is a major market downturn, like the Asia crisis of 1998 or the slump after the dotcom bubble burst, we have seen alternative investments like hedge funds bounce back far quicker than other investments.

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