Reuters – Asian institutional wealth holds the key to growing the local hedge fund industry that has relied heavily on foreign inflows, an industry body said on Wednesday.
With the exception of Singapore, regional institutional investors have mostly shied away from pouring money into alternative investment managers, though they have been seen to provide greater downside protection than equities.
Hedge fund indices dropped 20 percent in 2008, compared with the 40 percent slide in global stocks.
"We are quite fortunate in Asia because growth rates will be higher in the next one or two decades, and we will all get a lift from that. Also, wealth is being accumulated both by individuals and institutions," Christophe Lee, chairman of the Hong Kong chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) told the Reuters Private Equity and Hedge Funds Summit.
