|
|
By Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London:
Interviewed recently on Opalesque TV, Martin Litwak, a leading hedge funds and alternatives lawyer based in Argentina, explained that the most sophisticated and western style asset management industry in South America is to be found in Brazil. In other countries such as Argentina, Columbia and Peru, any hedge fund activity tends to come from individuals who have left financial institutions and set up on their own with an offshore vehicle. “Chile is more similar to Brazil, the same people who managed onshore funds are the ones that are creating the offshore funds. But, again, if you go and see which are the 10 largest offshore funds in Argentina most of them are run by individuals that do not have necessarily the experience dealing with onshore funds at the same time” says Litwak.
“So, they are, sort of, below the radar of the regulators. A lot has to do with confidentiality, that has to do with “rule of law,” and it has to do with sophistication as well.”
Looking back, Litwak believes that the hedge fund industry in Latin America had its first boom between 2003 and 2005. “Then the growth has, in one sense, stopped a little bit. Then we had the crisis - which, in terms of Latin America, was not so much on the liquidity like in most of the developed countries. It was much more about investor confidence” he says.
“We hav...................... To view our full article Click here
|
|
RSS
