最近，世界金融界没有什么比巴西和对冲基金更热的了。该国经济强劲、利率高、货币坚挺，吸引了大量资金流入，而对冲基金行业在金融危机期间的亏损中已经复苏，为管理资产创下历史新高。
It’s no small irony, then, that hedge funds in Brazil are having a hard time.
Multimercados, as hedge funds are called in Brazil, have slumped this year after a decade of phenomenal growth. Assets under management of multimercados were up just 2 percent on June 3 from the end of 2010, at $248 billion, compared with growth of 12 percent in the same period for the country’s entire fund management industry, to $1.13 trillion, according to the Brazilian Financial and Capital Markets Association, known by its Brazilian acronym Anbima.
A decline in Brazilian equities and rising interest rates have hurt the performance of most multimercados. With Brazil’s central bank maintaining the highest interest rates of any Group of 20 country, in a bid to contain inflation, many investors are shunning risk and putting money into short-term fixed-income products. As assets shift away from multimercados, many bankers see pressure growing for consolidation that will favor larger firms.
“我无法看到在市场份额方面恢复的多立方体。固定收入是当天的味道，“SulaméricaInvestiments投资副总裁Marcelo Mello说，保险公司Sulamérica的金钱管理臂。“我认为想要承担风险的巴西投资者将直接转向股票。Multimercados是过时的产品。它们是设计的一段时间易于alpha。如今，巴西投资者寻求β。为什么当投资者有这种良好的回报时，为什么alpha的所有风险都没有任何风险？“
The recent volatility in equity markets stemming from concerns about Greece’s debt situation has spurred a shift in investor preferences, says Allan Hadid, chief executive officer at BRZ Investimentos, a Brazilian hedge fund manager in São Paulo. “Investors are moving away from macro hedge funds to low-volatility, guaranteed-returns investments, including fixed-income time deposits, fixed-income real estate funds, corporate bonds and credit-linked products,” he says. As a result, he adds, “a lot of smaller managers are really suffering.”
这是巴西，当然，痛苦是相对的。对冲基金行业今年继续增长，但与近年来的戏剧性扩张相比，舞台舞蹈。Anbima表示，Multimercado资产2010年2010年增长了26％，2009年增长了70％。最近的迟钝也与整体货币管理行业的活力相反，其资产在今年的健康两位数速度上涨。
行业的活力在Brazil 20机构亚博赞助欧冠投资者是除外的usive annual survey of the country’s 20 largest money managers. These firms saw their collective assets increase to $910 billion as of March 31, up 29.3 percent from $704 billion at the end of 2009.
BB Gestã国有银行巴西银行的基金管理部门o DeRecurses继续在排名第一位扩大领先地位。该公司的资产在这一期间增长了36.5%，到3月底达到2393亿美元。整体秩序变化不大，不过瑞士信贷对冲公司格里福资产管理部是巴西领先的对冲基金经理，由于资产上涨39.4%，至193亿美元，其在该名单上的排名上升了1位至10位。
Brazil is home to some 400 asset managers that offer a wide range of multimercados, including 3,285 multistrategy funds, 1,922 funds of funds, 417 macro funds, 333 fixed-income/currency funds and 211 sector-specific funds, according to Economatica, a data provider with offices in São Paulo and New York.
MultiStrategy资金截至6月10日今年的平均净资产价值增加了6.4％，而2010年全年的增长率为18.8％，2009年的18.2％，Eudofalatiata数据显示。截至6月10日的资金资金平均涨幅为3.9％，而2010年的9.7％和2009年的14.6％。宏基资金今年上涨2.9％，而去年增长8.9％，2009年增加了8.9％。
基金的大宇宙为管理人员创造了压力。“多燃士产业现在令人难以置信的竞争力，”圣保罗的花旗财富管理总监恩尼奥·莫拉斯说。“卷有很多管理人员，这是延伸盈利。”
大多数多方式多立方体追求基本的投资方法，作为“巴西套件”。他们在当地债券中投入了大约三分之二的投资组合，并将大部分剩余部分放在巴西股票中。大多数资金仅在有限的程度上对冲其货币和利率风险。根据巴西财富经理SafdiéAsset管理的数据，仅需20％的Multimercados，这是美国和欧洲的对冲基金的基本主食。资金可以使用期货和选择利用高达250％的资产。
“Multimercados perform well in a bull market,” says Rodrigo Campos, macro strategist and partner at Constellation Asset Management, a São Paulo–based hedge fund manager. “The equity portion of their portfolios is normally long only. Most do not stock pick on the short side. If they want to hedge, they will do so mainly with the Bovespa index futures.”
Brazil is far from bull market territory, though. The stock market was down by 11.32 percent in reais, and by 7.25 percent in dollar terms, for the year as of June 23, according to LatAm Alternatives, a Weston, Florida–based hedge fund consulting firm. The Bovespa has seen the second-biggest drop, in dollar terms, among the BRIC countries. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was down 14.79 percent in that period, the Shanghai market was off 3.81 percent, and Russia’s Micex index was up 6 percent.
Meanwhile, Banco Central do Brasil has increased its key short-term interest rate, the Selic, from a low of 8.75 percent in March 2010 to 12.25 percent today, after a 25 basis point hike in June. Most analysts expect interest rates to remain elevated through 2012. For Brazilian investors such high rates change the game significantly, industry executives say. They know they can make good returns just by investing in fixed income and certificates of deposit with no need to pay multimercado managers’ typical 2 percent management fee and 20 percent performance fee.
最近，根据Anbima的说法，投资者将资金倒入短期存款中，这些短期存款截至今年6月10日提高了154亿雷（98亿美元）。其他普遍的部门包括通货膨胀联系债券，上涨了89亿雷，且股权部门资金，较大的133.4亿雷，大部分促进了电信和石油和天然气基金的增长。
与通胀挂钩的债券也成为一个大赢家。他们在今年年初至5月期间，流入了47.4亿雷亚尔，到5月的12个月，流入629亿雷亚尔。相比之下，今年唯一一个有明显流入的多商业部门是多战略，比年初增长了24.6亿雷亚尔。
“过去，MultiMercatos基金经理非常成功，”S.S.首席投资官奥塔维奥·维埃拉（Otavio Vieira）说ã圣保罗Safdié, 它管理着13亿雷亚尔的资产。”如今，他们的回报非常分散，但许多人只是无法产生α，他们无法战胜无风险的利率。他们很难为自己的收费辩护。”
Some managers are responding to the pressure by lowering management fees or trying to diversify their client bases by attracting long-term investors such as endowments, pension funds and sovereign funds. “Some houses will be forced to consolidate,” he adds. “Others will start to focus on consulting to asset and wealth management industries.”
The recent sluggishness is a dramatic change from the rapid growth of multimercados over the past decade. The sector started to take off in 2003 after the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, Brazil’s securities regulator, introduced rules targeted at the industry. Credit Suisse Hedging–Griffo was one of the first managers to introduce funds with a 14-day redemption period and followed that with funds with 30 days’ redemption in 2005. Hedge funds performed very well in the country during the 2006 and 2007 period, when asset valuations surged in the country and Brazil experienced a record number of IPOs. A series of reductions in interest rates from the historical levels of about 20 percent to 12 percent also encouraged investors to consider alternatives to fixed-income products.
Multimercados face among the toughest regulation of any hedge fund industry worldwide and differ from hedge funds in the U.S. in a number of ways. They must disclose their holdings to regulators on a monthly basis; they are audited and publish their NAVs every day; and they must maintain segregation of functions between management, administration and custodial. Mutual funds and multimercados are covered by the same regulations in Brazil.
“Brazilian multimercados are not the ‘black box’ hedge funds that you see in some funds,” says Ibrahim Hajjar, a partner at Credit Suisse Hedging–Griffo. “They have no side pockets. They cannot take on leverage like U.S. hedge funds. The strong legislation means that multimercados did not suffer any blowup during the international financial crisis. This made Brazilians very comfortable about the regulatory environment in Brazil and more confident about investing in multimercados.”
In 2009 the CVM put in place new regulations that stopped proprietary traders from taking leverage on to their balance sheets. A lot of top traders saw this as the right moment to set up their own hedge funds. Managers also started to offer better remuneration packages, and many Brazilians in New York or London decided to return home.
Traditionally, Brazil’s investment funds industry has been dominated by banks, mainly the big retail banks with large distribution channels, such as Banco Bradesco, Banco do Brasil and Itaú Unibanco Holding. In recent years, however, the banks have gone through a process of consolidation, and a number of senior executives in asset management decided to leave and to set up independent firms specializing in hedge funds.
“三个因素导致了一个蓬勃发展的行业，在过去几年中：坚定的立法支撑产业，CDI率越来越低，高质量的经理涌入，”哈杰尔说。
虽然今年的增长已经停滞不前，但一家多方体部门 - 仍然是海外市场的人 - 仍然很热。
In February 2008 the Brazilian regulator began allowing onshore funds with qualified clients to invest up to 100 percent in overseas assets. A qualified investor must have a minimum of 300,000 reais in liquid assets and the fund must have a minimum size of 1 million reais to be eligible. These vehicles have much more flexibility and can also invest up to 100 percent in asset-backed securities, other funds and a limited number of stocks.
Various managers — including Rio de Janeiro–based Gávea Investimentos, London-based Gems Advisors and São Paulo–based BTG Pactual — were quick to offer funds that invest offshore. Today there are 95 offshore funds managing a combined total of 51.4 billion reais in assets, according to Anbima.
“The chance to invest in overseas markets has been one of the biggest changes to the multimercado industry during the past few years,” says Rodrigo Borges, head of multiassets at HSBC Gestão de Recursos in São Paulo, which ranks sixth on theBrazil 20，资产454亿美元，其中10％被投资于多立方体。“巴西普通投资者开始更好地了解国外市场。越来越多的人正在寻求通过外国资产来多元化。“汇丰估计，今年同期从海上投资10％至15％的资产，每年从5％到10％。
“The rule change has expanded the horizons of Brazilian managers,” says Hajjar of Credit Suisse Hedging–Griffo. “Brazil is well and truly part of the global economy, and the change means that managers can now trade the whole world.”
More and more Brazilian managers are expanding their research teams to cover other key markets in the world and are opening offices in New York and London.
一些经理认为，有机会设立离岸基金，以迎合投资巴西资产的国际参与者。作为黑石集团一部分的全球替代资产配置代理，ParkHill Group正在全球范围内为巴西经理筹集资产，这些基金来自捐赠基金、基金会、基金和家庭办公室。目前，它正致力于为总部位于里约热内卢的资产经理勒布朗股票筹集资产，这是其唯一的对冲基金和混合基金。
“We are in contact with many foreign LPs about investing in Brazil,” says Les Baquiran, a partner at Park Hill. “We have seen interest from investors in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
“巴西的大多数本地资金每日流动性，通知期短，只有在每月和更长的锁上时，他说。“然而，大多数海上基金每月，季度甚至锁定长达三年。这适合可能具有长期投资视野的机构投资者。“亚博赞助欧冠Baquiran补充说，该国在过去几年中，该国在该国的大量IPO和后续行动为贸易商创造了更广泛的股票宇宙。
However, some managers believe that Brazilians are not yet prepared to invest in overseas assets. They stood on the sidelines as advanced economies suffered during the international financial crisis but saw that Brazil was the last major economy to enter a recession and the first one to come out of it. They are also discouraged by current events in Greece and in the euro zone more widely.
“在我看来,巴西投资者没有真正的appetite yet to invest in offshore assets,” says Constellation’s Campos. “They don’t understand how the Japanese yen works, and their perception is that local managers are not capable of trading in it either. They expect managers to trade only in local markets. This perception could well be wrong, as Brazil has a lot of talented managers — but the truth is managers cannot ignore their mandates or investors’ wishes.”