"Steady Stream" Of Chinese, European Creators Of Family Offices In Singapore - Deutsche Bank Study

Tom Burroughes

24 November 2015

There is a “steady stream” of individuals from China and Europe using Singapore as the base to set up family offices as part of how they gain Asian exposure, according to , and market neutral strategies continue to be their most preferable strategies,” the bank said in its Global Prime Finance Monthly Hedge Fund Trends report.

The bank noted that in general terms, hedge funds have languished, with most funds ending up flat for the month of October. Deutsche Bank said it expects a number of headwinds to persist as investors fret about when the US Federal Reserve finally raises interest rates, and concerns about regulatory interference with mergers and acquisitions.

According to a recent UBS survey, family offices in Asia-Pacific had an average of $480 million assets under management in 2013 and participating family offices in Asia manage over $20 billion in private wealth.

There could be anywhere between 100 and 200 family offices in Asia, according to a report last year published by INSEAD, the business school, and Pictet, the Swiss private bank (it sourced data from VP Bank and University of St Gallen, among others).

In other details, when giving its impressions of what US clients of hedge funds are looking for, Deutsche Bank gave the example of a meeting it had with 18 investors in Texas who between them oversee $80 billion in assets. Those investors included family offices, fund of funds and foundations.

“The active allocators are interested in uncorrelated strategies, singling out fundamental equity market neutral and discretionary macro. We did also observe some interest in sector-focused equity long/short managers with a focus on healthcare, TMT, and consumer. While the majority of investors are looking for managers with a global focus, there was a select subset enquiring after Asian managers,” Deutsche Bank said.