Denise Hu and Kamni Bharwani of family office Archer Asia discuss investment trends, what it takes to succeed as women in finance, and how the next gen wants to make a more measurable impact
When Kamni Bharwani joined SAIL Advisors, the family office of Robert Miller, a co-founder of Duty Free Shops, it was more than a new job. It was the beginning of a beautiful working relationship. She hit it off with colleague Denise Hu, and they’re still a team 16 years later.
“We’re both raised in Hong Kong and our parents were entrepreneurs, so the mindset is similar, and we are Asian, but we also have a Western perspective,” says Hu, who went to university in the US while Bharwani studied in the UK. “We work really hard and are quite passionate about what we do.”
At SAIL, they witnessed the evolution of Asian hedge funds, from a long-only bias to full-blown long, short and diversified strategies—and wanted to capitalise on their expertise in the space. The duo launched Archer Asia in 2009 to manage a portfolio of hedge funds for the founders and partners of Rockhampton Group. “The returns in the Asian hedge fund space have been very attractive,” says Bharwani.
They were ahead of the curve. Lately family offices are booming in Asia, as the region accumulates wealth, and becoming more institutionalised. Hu cites the emergence of many mainland Chinese family offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, where they can get access to offshore investments.
“We’ve experienced so much of the development of the industry together,” says Bharwani. “When we see managers or talk to the families we work with, we have a lot of reference points between the two of us—how we've seen funds develop in the past, what mistakes have been made, what things have gone right.”
Below she and Hu reflect on their past, why it’s important to make some noise about female fund managers, and what’s next for family offices and investment in Asia.
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What have your experiences been like as a team of two women investors?
Kamni Bharwani (KB): When we went to our first hedge fund conference in Tokyo in 2005, there would be roundtable discussions and I might be the only woman. I didn't think too much about it, and I certainly never felt disadvantaged. I always felt like we need to stand out for the hard work we do, the depth of understanding we have and our ability to express our views.
On the plus side, we were quite memorable because it was quite rare for fund managers to meet with a team of two women investors. Over time, that has already changed. At these kind of industry global events now there is a much fairer mix of men and women—and that is actually even more the case in Asia compared to US and Europe. There are a lot more women in the financial industry in Asia.
Denise Hu (DH): Yes, being in Asia there is less of a gap. Not to say it doesn’t exist, it definitely exists—and the higher up you go, the more likely it is to exist. But it's less so. When we look at the other markets like US, Australia or Europe, it’s surprising to see that the female representative is quite low. If you see any female senior, maybe it’s the COO, CFO or compliance officer rather than on the investment side.
In Asia and especially Hong Kong, you see comparatively many more female executives. The Alpha Female Report 2021 by Citywire shows the percentage of female fund managers running funds domiciled in key locations. We noted with pride that Hong Kong is on top with 28 per cent. Singapore is next in Asia at 20 per cent.