George Soros. - Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
HONG KONG: Soros Fund Management, founded by billionaire George Soros, plans to shut its Hong Kong office as part of an administrative reorganisation, but says it will continue to invest in Asia.
Following the closure, investments in Asia will be overseen from its New York and London offices, the New York-based firm said in an emailed statement.
It will continue to parcel out money to managers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and other Asian hubs, it added.
A spokesman for the company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking further information.
The billionaire founded the firm in 1970.
It invests globally, in public and private equity, fixed income, commodities, foreign exchange and other alternative assets, according to its website.
Soros and the firm are renowned for making US$1bil in a 1992 wager that the Bank of England would be forced to devalue the pound.
They also gained nearly US$1bil from November 2012 to February 2013 on bets that the yen would tumble.
The financial success enabled Soros to set up the Open Society Foundations, which give money to independent groups working to advance justice, democratic governance and human rights.
These days, Soros Fund Management primarily oversees investments for the charity foundation.
Soros Fund Management’s Hong Kong office opened in 2010. At its peak in 2011, it had 20 Hong Kong-licensed employees, according to Webb-site.com, which compiles such information from official regulatory data. After 2017 – the year Dawn Fitzpatrick was hired as chief investment officer – the number dropped below 10.
In September 2021, Soros wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion editorial that “pouring billions of dollars in China now is a tragic mistake.” The following month, Fitzpatrick said the firm was not putting money into China.
Portfolio managers and traders sitting in the firm’s Hong Kong office once traded across asset classes, or focused on equities and equity capital markets across the region, according to regulatory data and their LinkedIn profiles. Among the latest departures was portfolio manager Don Fries, whose regulatory license with the firm was removed in April. — Bloomberg
