Soros sees 'shakeout' downsizing hedge fund world

"The hedge-fund industry is going to move through a shakeout," Soros, one of the world's first hedge-fund managers and still among the best known, said on Tuesday in a speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Reuters reported.

"In my estimation (the industry) will be reduced in size by anywhere between half and two thirds," he said. He did not specify if he was talking about the number of funds or the amount of money invested in them, according to report.

Many of the ultra-wealthy investors who fueled a doubling in hedge-fund industry assets to about $1.9 trillion (1.1 trillion pounds) across roughly 10,000 of the loosely regulated funds worldwide in the last three years have been pulling their money out, fearful of hedge-fund failures.

To stabilize the economy, regulators should oversee credit markets, which will make some aspects of the financial services business less profitable, said Soros, one of the first voices to proclaim the severity of the current financial meltdown.

Soros, an ardent Democrat and early supporter of the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, also called for greater regulation of Wall Street.

"You must regulate credit as well as money and that does require more regulation," he said. "Regulation will certainly make some businesses unprofitable and certain business that rely on excessive leverage... will prove to be unworkable."

"Undoubtedly, the financial business will not be as profitable as it has been in the past 25 years."

Photo: AP