NEW YORK, Dec. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Haitou Global Private Credit Fund was recommended by Bloomberg based on performance in 2021 and was voted by hedge fund industry to receive Hedgeweek 2021 Best Emerging Manager - Credit Hedge Award.
Fighting COVID-19 as A Team
Haitou Global Private Credit Fund is a young fund, launched in October 2019 and hit by the pandemic right away. In early February 2020, Haitou Global assessed the pandemic based on in-person experience of SARS in 2003 in Beijing and first-hand information from Beijing team and concluded that it would be inevitable to spread across the globe.
"The first thing we did was to protect our team," says Jerry Wang, CEO of Haitou Global and Management Partner of Haitou Global Private Credit Fund. "Our Beijing team didn't come back to the office after Chinese New Year and our New York team started remote working at home after the first case emerging in Westchester, NY." The next priority was to protect assets. Haitou Global started to reduce its risk exposure and duration and to raise liquidity. When investors redeemed a third of their commitment in three months, Haitou Global Private Credit Fund had sufficient funds to return their capital. And the third was to improve communications. "We increased communication frequency with our local partners from monthly to weekly," says Wang. "Our API system pulled in latest data on loan performance daily. We also held monthly Zoom conference calls with our investors to report fund performances."
Delivering Risk Adjusted Returns
In terms of performance, what can be approved is that the return has reached the target in 2020. Wang comments: "We are confident in our private credit strategy in emerging markets. We maintained our fund risk exposure on the basis of satisfying redemption requirements of customers." Haitou's assets are also under the protection of collateral and guarantee and senior-level structures, and bad debts incurred during the worst period of pandemic were paid back 100 per cent according to the protective clauses.
Driving Social Impact
To consolidate and improve this performance, Haitou Global is expanding into new emerging markets, such as Mexico and Pakistan, and is diversifying investment in other assets, including agricultural loans, payroll loans and small business loans. "Drivingrive social impact is embedded in our investment thesis," Wang says. "Every investment we make must make positive social impact to our communities, whether a Pakistani social bank lending to Muslim women, or an Indonesian collective lending to coffee farmers."
Haitou Global will continues to strengthen research and development and operations capacity of its Beijing team, and plans to add USD50 million new capital to its private credit fund in the next three to six months.
https://www.hedgeweek.com/2021/11/30/309850/haitou-global-best-emerging-manager-fund-credit-hedge