The most popular region among institutions seeking private-equity investments in the fourth quarter of 2009 was Asia, according to Massachusetts-based Brighton House Associates BHA. And with regard to hedge-fund strategies, the biggest increase in interest was in global-macro and natural-resource strategies.
During the fourth quarter, BHA surveyed more than 1,300 alternative investors from across the globe on their interests and investment trends heading into 2010. They included firms from banks to corporations to endowments to insurers to sovereign wealth funds to private banks.
In testing times for the private-equity sector, investors that researched PE managers during the fourth quarter of 2009 expressed an interest in funds that provided regional...