What is AsiaHedge Awards 2009?

The AsiaHedge Awards celebrated the top performing hedge funds in Asia-Pacific in 2009. Now in its seventh year, the awards bring together both international and Asian managers and investors to acknowledge the achievements of the best in the industry.

The Real Return Asian Fund, managed by Ezra Sun of Veritas Asset Management, took the plaudits of more than 200 leading figures in the Asia-Pacific hedge fund industry as he collected the AsiaHedge Fund of the Year Award for 2009 at the AsiaHedge Awards on 22 October.

The much-coveted Management Firm of the Year award was won for 2009 by Henderson Global Investors, which had no less than four of its Asia-focused funds nominated in the various categories.

The strong turnout and upbeat mood at the dinner, which was being held for the eighth time, also demonstrated – after two years of extraordinary turmoil in the global markets – that the hedge fund industry in the Asia-Pacific region has very much survived, and indeed appears well positioned to thrive again after a year when many funds again delivered strong returns.

In an Asia-Pacific industry that is spread across various markets and featuring players based in a number of different locations, the awards were won by a mixture of big international firms and regionally-based players.

Among the major international firms that took awards, in addition to Henderson there was also Brevan Howard, which won the International award again for its Asia macro fund; and also Marshall Wace, which won the award for best Asia including Japan strategy for Asia Diversified TOPS fund.

HSBC won the award for best Single Country fund for its India hedge fund strategy managed by Sanjiv Duggal.

Regional boutiques that won included HT Capital for its Amoeba small cap strategy, and Riley Paterson for Asia ex-Japan.

A best China fund category was awarded for the first time this year, reflecting the rapid growth of dedicated China-focused hedge funds, with the inaugural winner being LBN China+ Opportunity. The long-established best Japan fund category was won by Hadoh, while another Japan-focused strategy – Prowess of Japan – took this year’s Arbitrage & Market Neutral award.

After being nominated on several previous occasions, the Fixed Income award was taken this time by Tribridge.

Evenstar and Phalanx, two new contenders at the awards, took the Event Driven and Multi-strategy categories. And the New Fund of the Year award went to Joe Chan’s new Galaxy China Deep Value fund.

The full list of this year’s final nominees and winners was as follows:

Asia ex-Japan
K2 Asian Absolute Return
Platinum Asia
Riley Paterson
Sofaer Capital Asian Hedge Fund

**WINNER: Riley Paterson**

Asia inc Japan
Greater Asian Hedge Fund
JF Asia Absolute Return
Marshall Wace Asia Diversified TOPS Fund
Real Return Asian Fund

**WINNER: Marshall Wace Asia Diversified TOPS Fund**

Japan
Akamatsu
Asuka Japanese Equity
Hadoh
Henderson Japan Absolute Return
Henderson Japan Select Absolute Return
PK Japan

**WINNER: Hadoh**

China
Ajia-Lighthorse China Growth Strategy
Dragon Billion China
Golden China
LBN China+ Opportunity
Pinpoint China
Pure Heart China Growth
Triskele China

**WINNER: LBN China+ Opportunity **

Single Country
Agora Absolute Return
BGI Australia Absolute Equity
HSBC India Alpha
K2 Australian Absolute Return
PXP Vietnam

**WINNER: HSBC India Alpha**

Small & Mid-Cap
Boyer Allan Pacific Opportunities
Frontier Asia
HT Asian Alpha Amoeba
Tiedemann Japan QP Small Cap Portfolio
Yaraka

**WINNER: HT Asian Alpha Amoeba**

Event Driven
Evenstar Sub Fund I
HDH Master Fund
Owl Creek Asia
UG Hidden Dragon Special Opportunity

**WINNER: Evenstar Sub Fund I**

Arbitrage & Market Neutral
Artradis Barracuda
CITIC Securities Alpha Leaders
DB Equilibria Japan
Northwest China Opportunities Fund
Prowess of Japan
Richland Asia Absolute Return
Titan Asia Volatility

**WINNER: Prowess of Japan**

International
BlackRock Asset Allocation Alpha Fund
Blue Sky World
Brevan Howard Asia
PMA Harvester
Platinum International

**WINNER: Brevan Howard Asia **

Fixed Income, High Yield and Distressed
ADM Galleus
Alphadyne Investment Strategies – Asia Rates Trading
Tribridge
QBridge

**WINNER: Tribridge**

Multi-Strategy
Asuka Opportunity
Henderson Asia Pacific Equity Multi-Strategy
LIM Asia Multi-Strategy
Northwest Fund
Phalanx Japan Austral-Asia Multi-Strategy
Pinpoint Asia Strategies
Rohatyn Group Asia Opportunity
Segantii Asia-Pacific Multi-Strategy

**WINNER: Phalanx Japan Austral-Asia Multi-Strategy**

New Fund of the Year
Artradis Asian Convertible Bond Fund
Galaxy China Deep Value Fund
Henderson Asia Select
Pure Heart Natural Selection Fund
Strategic China Panda Fund
Wisdom of Japan Fund

**WINNER: Galaxy China Deep Value Fund**

Management Firm of the Year
Asuka
Henderson
K2
Martin Currie
Platinum

**WINNER: Henderson**

Fund of the Year
Bevan Howard Asia
HDH Master Fund
Prowess of Japan
Real Return Asian Fund
Riley Paterson
Tribridge

**WINNER: Real Return Asian Fund**

Hedge funds have acquired a fearsome reputation in recent years, largely because people still remember how George Soros’s Quantum Fund helped to force the pound out of the European exchange-rate mechanism in 1992.

The irony is that, despite their high-risk image, hedge funds were originally designed to protect against risk, rather than maximise it.

So here is a quick explanation of what hedge funds are, how they operate and how you can invest in them.

What is a hedge fund?

An investment that aims to make money year in, year out, no matter what the financial climate (known as an absolute-return strategy). How to define hedge funds is tricky because it is an umbrella term for a huge range of different investment strategies and risk levels. One thing that they have in common is that wealth preservation – not losing money – comes very high up the list of priorities.

Why do they seem so scary?

Their sheer size (many funds are worth billions of pounds) is enough on its own to command attention, but it is the frequency with which they trade that gives them a profile even bigger than their size alone would merit. Market experts reckon that hedge funds account for as much as 50 per cent of all trades on the London Stock Exchange.

When hedge funds combine to bet on a particular outcome, as they did with the pound in 1992, even governments can find themselves powerless to resist the momentum they generate.

How do hedge funds work?

They use a number of strategies to make money for investors. Perhaps the most notable is the long-short equity strategy. This allows the fund manager both to “go long” – the traditional approach of buying an asset in the hope that it will rise in value – and to “go short”. The latter is when the fund manager sells a borrowed asset in the hope of buying it back more cheaply later.

Another approach is arbitrage, where the fund manager takes advantage of anomalies in the pricing of assets. For example, when a company’s shares are quoted in two different countries, arbitrageurs may see a slight advantage in buying the shares in one country rather than the other. To see arbitrage in action, use an online calculator.

A third method of making money is to take a significant stake in a company in the hope that a profitable takeover or management shakeout will follow.

Are hedge funds suitable for the man in the street?

There are a number of hurdles that a typical private investor needs to clear before putting money in a hedge fund. The first is that the initial investment required is usually very high. It is rarely less than £50,000 and can be £1 million or more, which rules out all but the wealthiest investors.

Hedge funds are based offshore and are not regulated by the Financial Services Authority, so the usual warning about seeking advice before buying applies with extra force in this case.

Although not all hedge funds are high-risk, some of the strategies used by some of the funds undoubtedly are. For example, the use of specialist instruments known as derivatives offers highly geared bets on the future price of things such as shares or commodities, and investors need to be sure that they appreciate the level of risk. Hedge funds typically use leverage. This involves borrowing additional money to increase the size of the bets they are taking.

How much is Hedge Fund Fee?

Quite a lot. Hedge funds typically charge 2 per cent a year in annual fees, plus a performance fee of 20 per cent or more of any rise in the fund’s value. Performance fees are rewards to managers for achieving a certain level of return. The idea is that by offering these incentives the fund ensures that both the managers and the investors have a strong interest in the fund doing well.

Does the performance of these funds justify the high fees?

It is impossible to give a blanket answer to that question, but it is certainly fair to say that the high charges act as a drag on performance.

For example the average return on European hedge funds in 2008 was a little less than 10 per cent, according to HedgeFund Intelligence, the industry information group. This compares with the return of 18.1 per cent posted by ordinary European equity funds.

However, hedge funds fared much better in the bear market of 2001 and 2002. While the stock market was down 45 per cent, hedge funds were up by between 1 per cent and 2 per cent. Because hedge funds aim for absolute returns, they tend to perform better than the stock market in bad times but less well in good times.

How do you go about buying a hedge fund?

Your financial adviser should be able to point you in the right direction, but you will need a substantial initial sum and could be buying into a very risky investment.

Charles Cade, of Winterflood Securities, the stockbroker, says that he would not recommend direct investment in hedge funds. A better route would be a fund of hedge funds. These invest in a number of different funds and there are more than 20 listed on the London Stock Exchange.

But these, too, have drawbacks. They usually charge another layer of performance fees on top of those levied by the underlying hedge funds, and like hedge funds, they are not regulated by the FSA, though the watchdog is thinking about bringing some funds of hedge funds under its regulatory umbrella.