Traditional asset firms that have started getting their feet wet in hedge funds and other alternative investments are being flooded with assets as they target their institutional clients, The Wall Street Journal reports. State Street Global Advisors, for example, entered the hedge fund business in the early 1990s, according to the Journal, but in the past year alone it’s raised 25% of its total HF assts. Further, Henderson Global Investors attracted 33% of its $3 billion AUM in hedge funds just since January. “What we are doing is leveraging out experience in fixed-income and equities, taking advantage of our skills in those areas, and using them for strategies that we’re not typically known for,” Jane Tisdale, managing director at State Street’s absolute return strategies, told the Journal. The relatively untapped institutional investor market in Asia is also a key component of their strategies, as traditional asset firms are beefing up their Asian staffs to deal with what they hope will be a huge infusion of cash. How untapped is that market? Of the $1.28 trillion in HF assets worldwide, Asian institutional investors contribute just $55 billion, with half of that coming from Japan.
