Sparx Flies As Leading Asian Hedge Fund

Asia is the fastest-growing area in hedge funds, and Sparx Asset Management has been dubbed the largest Asian hedge fund with US$5.2 billion in assets under management, according to Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine. Fueling Sparx’s growth was its acquisition last month of PMA Capital Management, the second-largest Asia-based HF with US$2 billion AUM. The runners-up are Asia Debt Management and Ward Ferry Management (both with US$1.4 billion AUM) and Penta Investment Advisers (US$925 million). According to Alpha, all told the 25 largest HFs based in Asia managed a total of US$22.6 billion in single manager hedge funds, and that an estimated 70% of Asian hedge funds are in long-short strategies. Returns in the region have been robust, up 22.4% last year, compared with 6.5% for the Europe index and 4.9% for Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Hedge funds in Japan, says Alpha, have grown 12.6%, while the rest of Asia Pacific has grown 13.2%, compared with 7.8% in Europe and 9.5% in North America. Despite the growth, managers say Asia presents difficulties because of the various languages, currencies, laws, regulations and even investment attitudes in the various countries.
For more from this month's Alpha magazine, go to DailyII.com.