Paul Storey, editor, AsiaHedge
Throughout the Asia-Pacific hedge fund universe, 2007 was a year of plenty for Asia ex-Japan strategies, but it also proved to be a very hard time for Japan managers. Meanwhile, the initial picture for 2008 does not look particularly promising for the region as a whole.
Overall assets under management grew by about 32% – from $148 billion to over $196 billion during the course of 2007. This was a slightly higher rate of growth than in 2006 when total assets grew by about 27%.
There were at least 116 new Asia-Pacific hedge funds launched during 2007 – slightly down on the previous two years – but they were of a bigger average size, raising combined assets of over $11.8 billion by year-end, well up from a figure of around $7.2 billion in 2006.
The number of new hedge funds launched in the Asia-Pacific...