Despite a slow thawing, fund launches are at historic lows, with the biggest 21 new funds garnering $3.9 billion - down 81% from last year's first half
By Britt Erica Tunick
As a disastrous 2008 wound to a close, Karim Mawji found himself at a crossroads. A fund manager for New York-based hedge fund Perennial Investors, Mawji, like many of his peers, was facing a big pay cut with little prospect of improvement on the horizon. Perennial's assets under management had fallen more than 50% amid losses and redemptions, and the future looked grim.
"The reality was that we'd had assets redeemed, and I had a choice. I thought, 'Am I going to essentially work for free for two to three years and try to claw back to the high-water mark, go find a job at another fund, or do I start something on my own?'" asks Mawji, who chose...