By Nick Rockel
THE WORLD WASN’T KIND TO VALUE PARTNERS in 2011. The Hong Kong–based investment firm, which focuses on Greater China, found that its contrarian stock-picking strategy offered little shelter from global market turbulence.
As of March 31, Value Partners’ assets under management had fallen more than 9 percent from a year earlier, to $7.8 billion. Its flagship, $1.7 billion, Classic Fund lost 17.2 percent in 2011 — a big letdown after 2010, when it gained 8.1 percent.
Wai Ming (Timothy) Tse, Value -Partners’ CEO, says problems in Europe and worries about the U.S. and Chinese economies all played a role. “Bottom-up stock picking didn’t seem to work in such abnormal market conditions,” explains Tse, whose 210--employee firm also has offices in -Shanghai and Taipei.
Despite those troubles, publicly traded Value Partners takes the No. 1 position in the Asia Hedge Fund...