Asia Pacific Intelligence

New AIMA Hong Kong chairman focuses on establishing presence in China

Monday, October 08, 2012

Philip Tye, the new chairman of AIMA Hong Kong and founding partner and managing director of Dragonback Capital Limited, is focussing on supporting industry participants in developing AIMA's presence in China. "China is now at the stage where there are potential changes in regulation which could make hedge funds a growing part of the financial industry there" Tye said, in an interview with Asia Pacific Intelligence. "It's time that AIMA had a presence in China which will have to be built by industry participants in China and our role is to support them."

AIMA Hong Kong is currently the largest chapter in Asia with 165 members, and was set up some 16 years ago. Other focuses for the new chairman include working locally in Hong Kong to ensure that Hong Kong is promoted as one of the world's major financial centres. The Hong Kong government has put together a task force to promote Hong Kong. "We're on their side, as a major hedge fund centre it's important that AIMA does get involved and gives its opinions" Tye said.

A third area that concerns him is the development of the regional groups within AIMA. "We want to bring more emphasis on Asia with co-operation between the various Asian AIMA chapters" Tye said. AIMA has chapters in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Sydney, Australia at the moment.

Tye's business, Dragonback Capital, is a hedge fund platform. Tye comments on the tough times that the Asian hedge fund industry is enduring. "It's very difficult at the moment" he says. "There is still some investment coming in but traditionally Asian hedge funds have relied a lot on European and North American investors and it is difficult to get that investment at the moment. We live in hope but there is no evidence of improvement yet. The numbers are well established, the statistics show that there has been a decrease in assets."

This article was published in Opalesque's Asia Pacific Intelligence our monthly research update on alternative investments in the Asia-Pacific region.