GLG gets trading licence in Hong Kong

GLG Partners has just received a type-9 investment advisory licence in Hong Kong that it will use to trade.

Pierre Lagrange, London-based managing director, says this inaugurates a gradual build up of both traders and research analysts in Hong Kong, which will serve as GLG’s regional hub.

The initiative was made possible by GLG’s recent acquisition by Man Investments, announced in May and completed last month.

Before the deal, GLG managed $25 billion of assets, of which $3 billion are invested in Asian instruments. The combined entity, Man and GLG, is now $63 billion, says Tim Rainsford, Man’s Asia CEO.

GLG manages a wide range of alternative investments, including equities, convertible bonds, fixed income, macro and currency, both for developed and emerging markets. Lagrange says the combined entity brings together the best of “humans and computers”, referring to Man’s quant AHL market-directional trading strategy.

Lagrange, who also runs the firm’s global equity strategies, says GLG has invested in Asian markets ever since it began operations 15 years ago, but all from London. It lacked the scale to build a presence locally in Asia.

Man has an existing distribution capability among both institutional and wholesale channels in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan, and will market GLG products regionally.

Lagrange notes that GLG currently has a wide range of institutional clients in Europe and the US, including state and corporate pension funds, family offices, governments, and wholesalers.

Rainsford says the combined firm is looking at the possibility of Asia-focused investment strategies, or global strategies or portfolios that blend the GLG and AHL processes.