Former HSBC Holdings Plc economist Geoff Barker revealed plans to establish a new macro hedge fund in Asia in March next year. The revelation, noted by Bloomberg in an article, followed a successful lead management of an earlier pool that led to a 10.4% annualized gain starting 2006.
Through a venture with City Financial Investment Co, Counterpoint Asian Macro Fund would make him the first Asia-based manager that had been supported by City Financial, Barker said. Barker said the London-headquartered company is led by two former executives of the perpetual asset management unit of Invesco Ltd.
Bloomberg also noted that Barker would be one of the latest fund managers in Asia to take part in what the news agency dubbed as "platforms." These financial vehicles would reportedly provide non-investment services in order for the hedge fund managers to reduce costs incurred during the startup phase and still attract institutions to invest. The news agency concluded that hedge-fund startups were turning to such platforms, including what City Financial had offered as funds-of-funds lost assets following the worldwide financial crisis in 2008. These fund-of-funds rely on rich individuals, which in effect, had hampered the ability of smaller hedge funds to raise their own capital.
Since 2009, managers who had been overseeing at least USD5 billion in assets attracted a whopping USD127.5 billion in fresh capital, said Hedge Fund Research Inc. However, the Chicago-based data provider highlighted the disparity in smaller hedge funds, who then experience net outflows instead of inflows.
In an interview conducted in Hong Kong on November 14, Barker said, "It's better to be part of a business that we know is capable of passing due diligence of major investors. In the post-Global-Financial-Crisis world, scale is more important...The most important thing is you should have a business as well as a fund. We can do it ourselves but it's probably easier, quicker, less risky, more credible if we do it with a partner that's already got that."
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