Hedge funds see Asian credit opportunity

There is an imminent opportunity for hedge funds in Asia to earn outsized returns in distressed credit over a roughly three-year period, provided investment risks are better analysed and fund structures are improved.

A panel of hedge-fund managers from Hong Kong and Singapore discussed yesterday whether the industry was capable of applying lessons about credit risk learned the hard way to take advantage of the current environment, at the Distressed Troubled Asset Investing Summit co-organised by AsianInvestor and FinanceAsia magazines.

Moderator Simon Osborne, senior reporter at AsianInvestor, challenged managers' ability to absorb lessons about credit risk, from both the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 as well as...