Asian hedge funds finished the year strongly, attracting USD500million in new capital for Q4 as global investors looked to strategies for protection against the region’s ever-growing inflatioPARA_BREAK_SENTINEL_9f8e7d6c

Asian hedge funds finished the year strongly, attracting USD500million in new capital for Q4 as global investors looked to strategies for protection against the region’s ever-growing inflationary pressures, reported US-based Hedge Fund Research in its latest quarterly update. Some USD4.4billion in assets (including performance gains) were added to Asian hedgies - representing the biggest quarterly gains since Q3 2009 – to bring overall assets under management to USD83.4billion. HFR reported that USD6.6billion had been allocated into Asia for 2010. Equity l/s funds, which represent roughly 44 per cent of Asian hedge funds, performed quite well in 2010, gaining 9.89 per cent (Asia ex-Japan). Investors turned to these, along with event driven strategies, for inflationary hedging purposes. Interestingly, however, only 35 per cent of inflows in Q4 went to equity l/s, with event-driven funds attracting USD765million for the full year. This is an encouraging sign that Asia’s relatively immature alternatives industry is starting to evolve into a more sophisticated beast. Asia ex-Japan event-driven strategies, according to Eurekahedge, gained 13.54 per cent in 2010.