Asia Pacific Intelligence

Editorial

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Welcome to the February issue of Asia Pacific Intelligence. This month we open with a focus on all things Japanese, as the markets and economy that many have dismissed as moribund are slowly coming back to life, under the regime change of new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a growing awareness that the country must deal with its crippling level of debt. Japan has a debt burden worse than Greece says Chris Rigg, manager of the Audley Japan Opportunities Fund in the first of our interviews and predicts rich returns as the country transforms.

Stefan Nilsson of HFC Advisory Group outlines for our readers the size, scope and predilections of the Japanese hedge fund market, both from within and without, and we have a note that the Japanese Government Pension Fund, the biggest pension pot in the world, is finally looking at investing in alternatives. Our final piece on Japan is an interview with Patric de Gentile Williams, head of seeding at Man's FCA who has invested $25m with Japanese long short hedge fund manager Toby Bartlett at Arena.

Other countries covered this month are India where Dr Vinay Nair of Ada Investments believes that the potential for the development of a local hedge fund industry is as ripe as it was in the US in the 1980s.

We also take a look at Australia, where the government's introduction of a new visa may produce rich pickings for hedge fund managers, according to BasisPoint's David Chin.

Finally, we have our usual round up of hedge fund news for January and for the whole region.

Beverly Chandler
Editor, Asia Pacific Intelligence
Chandler@opalesque.com

Beverly Chandler

About the editor - Based in the UK, Beverly Chandler has been a specialist hedge fund journalist and editor for many years. She has written extensively for the national newspapers, including the Financial Times, trade papers and established a number of hedge fund magazines and newsletters. She has also written a series of books on the subject, including Managed Futures - An Investor's Guide for Wiley Financial, and Investing with the Hedge Fund Giants, from Pearson. Beverly was the European editor for MAR Hedge from 1996 to 2000, the years when a great number of the hedge fund manager star names of today were starting to build their businesses. She was awarded the Rose Baratz journalism award by AIMA in 1992.

Beverly has also worked extensively in the hedge fund conference industry, chairing and filming interviews at events for the GAIM conferences among others.

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