Fund manager Paulson gets Hong Kong securities license

Paulson, whose bet that the American mortgage market would implode made him one of the world's wealthiest people, received the license on February 21, according to the records.

The hedge fund industry pioneer, who earned an estimated $5 billion in 2010, mainly through bets that the economy would recover, has hired Xiaoli Deng, Sandra Lee and Winnie Wong, all from Morgan Stanley , the records show.

Financial Times publication Ignites Asia reported earlier that Paulson had received the license for a Hong Kong office.

About a fifth of 100 leading institutional investors in hedge funds surveyed by alternative assets research firm Preqin expressed an improvement in their levels of confidence in hedge funds in 2010, with nearly two-thirds saying Asia would present the best opportunity in 2011.

Asian hedge funds are projected by tracker Eurekahedge to add about $40 billion to their current assets of $125 billion in 2011. The region has attracted the likes of GLG, Soros Fund Management, Moore Capital, Maverick Capital and Viking Global Investors.

(Reporting by Nishant Kumar; Editing by Chris Lewis)