Bloomberg – Hedge fund managers in Asia are showing their soft side by setting up a charity, the first of its kind in the region.
Returns Invested in Children and Education, or RICE, will also raise money for minors in developing nations from private equity funds, investment banks, prime brokers and family offices.
“We see a need for the hedge fund industry, which in some respects makes an outlandish profit, to give some of that back into charity and back into the society,” said Michael Nock, who oversees about $500 million at Doric Capital Corp. in Hong Kong.
Hedge funds, which cater to wealthy individuals and institutions, are increasingly chipping in to help the underprivileged. They are earning more money as more capital flows to Asia, boosting their assets under management and the region’s stock markets.
The HFRI Emerging Markets: Asia Index, which measures the performance of hedge funds investing in Asian equities or sovereign debt, returned 16.76 percent in the year’s first four months. On top of management fees of 1.5 percent to 2 percent of assets, managers take 20 percent of profit in performance fees.
