Swiss RMF Investments has moved its regional headquarters from Tokyo to Singapore in an effort to boost its activities in Asia, executives said Monday. RMF Investments, a fund of global hedge funds employing such strategies as betting on mergers and investing in commodities, is a core unit within the Man Investments group, which has 60 billion US dollars in assets under management.

RMF manages 23 billion US dollars, 10 percent of with is allocated to Asia. Chief executive Fred Siegrist told The Straits Times that the proportion is expected to grow steadily.

Hedge funds in Asia are "a lot smaller than those in the United States and Europe," where funds may employ staffs of 20 to 50, Adrian Gmuer, heading the Singapore office, was quoted as saying.

Noting the Asian hedge fund industry has a long way to grow, he said that many funds have taken "a long-biased strategy" due to the equity markets’ expansion over the past few years which has made it easy to make money.

If the markets go into a downturn, Gmuer said that these managers will have to use more short strategies to bring in returns.