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By Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London:

In an interview with Matthias Knab for Opalesque TV, Masahiro Koshiba, CFA, President of United Managers Japan (UMJ) and also manager of the UMJ Kotoshiro fund explained his background as one of the longest serving Japanese hedge fund managers.

"I have been a fund manager since 1990, when Nikkei peaked at 38,000, and since then the Japanese equity market has been on a long-term down trend" Koshiba said. He started on the long only side and moved to running long/short portfolios in 2000, investing on the hedge fund side and also employing the long/short strategy for Japanese equities. United Managers Japan set up an incubation platform to introduce local fund managers in Japan to various institutional investors, not only in Japan, but also for overseas investors, Koshiba explains.

"The first two years is actually quite good, we have quite a good business environment, which is actually Year 2004 and 2005, and we raised several hundred million in a year. But unfortunately, starting from 2006 actually the business environment deteriorated, because of some scandals and also overseas investors’ interest shift from Japan to the rest of Asia. And then we lost asset quite a bit since 2006." Since then, Koshiba has returned to his roots as a fund manager, managing initially his private money and then for the last four years his own fund, UMJ Kotoshiro Fund. The fund is a Ja......................

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