Hedge funds in Hong Kong are picking up redundant i-bankers at bargain prices. New figures from recruitment firm Mathew Hoyle International show a 48% rise (year-on-year) in the number of executives in Asia placed in hedge funds from investment banks.

“The war for talent between hedge funds and banks was much bigger last year. Now the funds don’t need to pay so much to get people. It’s more of a firesale,” says Mathew Hoyle, co-founder of the recruiter.

Cost cutting at investment banks means now is a great time to cherry pick staff. Hoyle says hedge fund managers have their eyes on traders, analysts and portfolio managers from internal prop desks.

Pan Zai Xian, a financial services manager at recruiter Robert Walters, has noticed a similar trend in Singapore. He says the funds are looking at bankers in New York and London too. “They want to attract international talent and capitalise on the soft markets there.”

And some bankers are looking to jump ship before they’ve been laid off, lured to hedge funds not just by the threat of redundancy, but because of the bleak outlook for banking bonuses. Hoyle adds: “Hedge funds pay bonuses based on individual performance, not a discretionary basis like the banks.”

Pan says bankers aren’t just keen to join hedge funds, they also want to create their own ones from scratch. “For an out-of-work trader, it can be fairly easy to set up a hedge fund with two or three people, as long as you have sizeable assests under management.”