MANAGERS from the world's largest investment funds remain bullish on Asia but the key word is value after the slide in share prices during the first half of 1994.
Rising interest rates and the change in momentum after last year's bull market have left fund managers cautious but still tuned into the region, said Gary Coull, senior managing director of Credit Lyonnais (Asia), after a week-long global investors' bashsponsored by the brokerage.
''Fund managers are shopping for value rather than sweeping the shelves as they were doing last year. They are still interested but claims on capital from the likes of Eastern Europe, Latin America and the US itself mean 'only at the right price'.'' Rising interest rates meant most fund managers were still cautious about allocating their portfolios to Hong Kong and, in China, there was ''intense academic interest rather than a buying will'', he said.
The conference drew 64 Asian companies and 240 fund managers from across the globe with a combined spending power of US$2.5 trillion (about HK$19 trillion), said Mr Coull.
Many fund managers had earlier expressed a will to enter ''the investment cycle'' and were particularly interested in direct investment in industrial enterprises, he said.
This represented a natural progression since many were recent entrants to the Asian markets and wary of the risks.
