Editor's letter

This month we feature extensive coverage of happenings at our European conference, held in London at the start of November

The structured products market in Hong Kong is still vibrant, but not quite as healthy as last year. This was the consensus at last month's Structured Products Asia conference in Hong Kong. Next month we report on the major stories to come out of the event.

This month, however, we have extensive coverage of happenings at our European conference, held in London at the start of November. Many delegates, and indeed speakers, interestingly enough, pointed out that a lot of Europeans are, in fact, looking to Asia when it comes to structured products. And recent launches support this suggestion.

Last month, Barclays Capital launched two structured notes for the UK providing investors with exposure to Japanese equity markets. Aimed primarily at fund managers and asset managers in the UK, both the notes have daily liquidity in the secondary market, BarCap says.

Meanwhile, London-based KGR Capital listed its Asian fund of hedge funds, the KGR Absolute Return PCC, as an investment company on London Stock Exchange.

These are interesting developments and evidence of the opportunities Asia's financial markets can provide for structured products specialists across the globe. Accordingly, Structured Products will include a Focus on Asia special report next month.

Also next year, look out for our rankings of the best structurers in the business. Rankings differ from our editorially chosen awards in the sense that we will poll distributors to find out who are the best manufacturers of derivatives-based investments. What's more, work has already started on February's Technology Guide - make sure you visit our website to see how you can take part.

Finally, I'd like to wish all of our readers a merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous New Year. Here's to hoping that 2006 sees the advent of even more innovations and the continued uptake of derivatives-based investments.