New Zealand's Hedge Fund Managers Weathered The Financial Crisis Best

Opalesque, the world's largest subscription-based- Neil Williams, General Manager Public Markets,
publisher covering the alternative investmentNew Zealand Superannuation Fund
industry, has launched the 29th issue in a series of- Anthony Limbrick, Chief Investment Officer,
regional roundtable forums- Opalesque 2010 NewPure Capital
Zealand Roundtable. The 27 page Roundtable can- Charles Drace, Founder, Socrates Fund
be downloaded for free atManagement
Two years after launching the Opalesque- Jeremy Muir, Senior Associate, Minter Ellison
Roundtable Series in 2008 in Auckland, OpalesqueRudd Watts
founder Matthias Knab traveled back to the- Mark Brighouse, Managing Director, Brook Asset
"other end of the world" (another 11 hours flightManagement
from Hong Kong...) looking for answers and the- Mark Sleeman, Founder, MS Capital Management
latest trends. There, a diverse group of hedge- Michael Gibbs-Harris, Founder, MGH Asset
fund managers and CTAs were able to buck theManagement
global downtrend and instead cranked out a- Mike Taylor, Founder, Pie Funds
positive return of +20.4% (as measured by the- Peter Lawson, Counsel, Ogier
Ernst & Young New Zealand Absolute Return- Philip Crotty, Managing Director, New Zealand
Index) in 2008 - the year the MSCI World tankedAssets Management Asia
over -40%, erasing $14trn of shareholders'The Roundtable was made possible by Pure
wealth. In 2009, the NZARA Index, which wasCapital, who sponsored this Opalesque Roundtable,
created in conjunction with the New Zealandlaw firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts who provided
Absolute Return Association (NZARA), was upthe Auckland meeting venue, and Custom House
+17.5%.Group and Taussig Capital as the 2010 Opalesque
What is behind the clear outperformance of theRoundtable Series sponsors. Matthias Knab,
New Zealanders?founder of Opalesque and internationally
As the average global hedge fund was downrecognized expert on hedge funds and
around -20% in 2008, the question that needs toalternatives, moderates the Opalesque
be answered is: what is behind that clearRoundtables.
outperformance of the New Zealanders?The Roundable can be downloaded for free at
And which strategies help the New Zealanders toAll other previously published Opalesque
build their asset base? Some of these managersRoundtable Scripts can be accessed here:
have also set up offices in London, but why areAbout Opalesque:
they now "seriously questioning our commitmentIn 2003, with the publication of its daily Alternative
to being in Europe" and pondering moves toMarket Briefing, Opalesque successfully launched
Singapore?an information revolution in the hedge fund media
In this Roundtable, Neil Williams, General Managerspace: "Opalesque changed the world by bringing
Public Markets of the New Zealand Superannuationtransparency where there was opacity and by
Fund, explains what this government pension funddelivering an accurate professional reporting
thinks about hedge funds and how they are used.service." - Nigel Blanchard, Culross. This hybrid
Philip Crotty, Managing Director of New Zealandfinancial news service, which combines proprietary
Assets Management believes it is a very goodindustry news stories and filtered third party
idea for global hedge funds to include Australasianreports, has been credited by many industry
investors in their client mix, as they "generallyinsiders with delivering precise, accurate, and vital
take a long-term view of their investments andinformation to a notoriously guarded audience.
do not redeem whenever there is turmoil in theEach week, Opalesque sends out over 650,000
markets."editions of its eleven publications to a global
The Opalesque 2010 New Zealand Roundtable hadreadership in over 170 countries.
the following participants: