fyi: Soros fund to set up Hong Kong office
By Robert Cookson in Hong Kong
Published: January 15 2010 05:32 | Last updated: January 15 2010 05:32
Soros Fund Management, billionaire investor George Soros’ investment company, is setting up an office in Hong Kong to take advantage of the region’s growth, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The move comes as a wave of global financial groups have in recent months moved to open or expand operations in Asia, many choosing Hong Kong because of its links to mainland China.
Anthony Bolton, one of the most renowned fund managers in Europe, shelved his retirement plans last month to relocate from London to Hong Kong to set up a China-focused fund for Fidelity.
Mr Soros became infamous for forcing the pound out of Europe’s exchange rate mechanism in 1992 by shorting the currency, or betting that its value would go down, and garnering a $1bn profit in the process.
His subsequent attempts to undermine the Hong Kong dollar by the same tactic during the 1998 Asian financial crisis earned him the local nickname “crocodile” and were thwarted by the territory’s government.
In moving to Hong Kong, the Soros fund will join a growing cast of hedge funds, asset managers and banks that have chosen to set up shop in the city after financial markets recovered last year.
In an interview with the Financial Times in October, Mr Soros said China would replace the US consumer as the source of global growth, although on a smaller scale.
“China will be the engine driving it forward and the US will be actually a drag that’s being pulled along through a gradual decline in the value of the dollar,” he said at the time.
James Chang, formerly of Tiger Asia Management, was one of the managers planning to relocate from New York to Hong Kong to open the Soros fund office, the person familiar with the matter said.
The fund, which is no longer actively managed by Mr Soros, is expected to start operations in the first quarter.
Its existing operations in New York have recently been active in Asian markets, buying up stakes in Chinese companies through recent Hong Kong initial public offerings.
Michael Vachon, a New York-based spokesman for Mr Soros, declined to comment.
The size of the hedge funds industry in Asia, at $117bn, remains small compared with the global total of $1,480bn, according to Eurekahedge, the data provider.
In 2009, hedge funds in Asia outside of Japan returned an average 37.5 per cent, outpacing the global average of 19.4 per cent.
Of the 1,156 hedge funds in Asia, some 228 are based in Hong Kong.
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