Henderson bounces back from tech fallout

“In Singapore we went from being a hero to a villain because of our technology funds,” says Alexander Henderson, managing director of Hong Kong and Singapore at the $145 billion Henderson Global Investors. Tech has been one of the firm’s key strengths, and in the dot.com boom days, Henderson bought a lot of new investors on board. Henderson will not provide numbers but says in the aftermath of the Nasdaq’s crash beginning in early 2000, a lot of retail investors lost money and pulled out.

But today the firm has recovered thanks to a series of new products and services, and has restored its assets under management. To return from zero to hero, Henderson emphasized fixed income, tactical asset allocation and property, and is now looking at other areas such as a fund of hedge funds or a small-cap fund.