Asia’s billion-dollar club has come a long way the past few years. No longer is it ruled by branches of the Brevan Howards and Och-Ziffs of the world, instead, it’s now dominated by homegrown LIMs, Dymons, and Hillhouses.
In light of Pinpoint Asset Management’s recent inclusion (paywall) to the group, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the club’s current members, especially the bigger ones.
Here are five of them:
LIM Advisors, $2 billion
Founded in 1995 by George Long as Long Investment Management, Hong Kong-based LIM Advisors has since turned into a $2 billion powerhouse with offices in Beijing, Tokyo, Stamford, and Mauritius. A multi-strategy shop, LIM uses various methods of seeking alpha, from investing in convertible bonds to merger arbitrage.
Graticule Asset Management, $4 billion
Spun off from Fortress back in 2014, Adam Levinson’s Singapore-based Graticule Asset Management seeks returns through Asia-related, macro investment themes. The firm may have run into some bad luck last year though, as it bet on Chinese brokerages such as Haitong and CITIC prior to the SHCOMP’s fall.
Dymon Asia Capital, $4.5 billion
Launched in 2008 as a global macro fund backed by Tudor, Dymon Asia Capital has since become one of Asia’s most successful – and diverse – funds. Aside from its bread and butter global macro strategies, the fund also does private equity and venture investments. It returned 18.8% in 2014, and 20% in 2011. It did, however, lose 10.5% early last year when the Swiss National Bank removed the swissy’s peg from the euro.
Value Partners, $15.6 billion
Okay, so it isn’t strictly a hedge fund, but nevertheless, Value Partners’ long-short equity and fixed income strategies are among the biggest in the world. The Hong Kong-based firm was founded in 1983 by Dato’ Cheah Cheng Hye and businessman Yeh V-nee.
Hillhouse Capital, $20 billion
Founded by Zhang Lei in 2005 with $20 million from the Yale Endowment, Hillhouse now boasts over $20 billion in asset under management from foundations, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and family offices. It also boasts one of the best investment records in the industry, having racked up 52% annualized gains since 2005 to 2012 – and that’s after it posted a 37% drop in 2008. That record has since slumped to over 40% in 2014, but I doubt anyone’s complaining.
Photo: Matt Brown