20 managers control half of hedge fund assets in HK - SFC

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Just 20 funds cornered 56 percent of the hedge fund assets in Hong Kong, a survey by the Securities and Futures Commission released on Friday showed.

More than 500 hedge funds in Hong Kong managed $63 billion at the end of September, an increase of 14 percent from March 2009, with half of the funds managing $100 million or less.

While the hedge funds are still $27 billion short of their pre-crisis level in 2008, assets have risen nearly sevenfold since 2004 when the Hong Kong regulator started the survey.

The number of funds in the biggest hedge fund market in Asia-Pacific, which has drawn the likes of GLG, Soros Fund Management and Paulson to set up offices, has risen about fivefold to 538 since 2004, the survey showed.

Equity long/short and multi-strategy are the two most popular strategies followed by hedge funds based in Hong Kong, accounting for nearly 65 percent of the assets.

A majority of their investments are focused on Asia-Pacific markets, with the Hong Kong and mainland China markets making up 27 percent of their assets.

Most investors were from overseas, with those from Hong Kong contributing 7.9 percent to the assets, the survey showed.

Download the survey from here: link.reuters.com/dac58r

(Reporting by Nishant Kumar; Editing by Chris Lewis)