Exclusive: Low Interest Forces Cancellation Of SALT Asia, One Of The Hedge Fund Industry's Biggest Conferences

Several sources familiar with the situation said the Asian counterpart of Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Alternatives conference, dubbed “the super bowl of hedge fund conferences,” has been scrapped due to low interest and a scheduling snafu.

Rick Wilking / Reuters

Investors in Asia have apparently lost their taste for SALT.

SALT, which stands for Skybridge Alternatives, is one of the hedge fund industry's biggest conferences, launched by prominent fund manager Anthony Scaramucci. It draws big-name speakers from the hedge fund industry and beyond, like David Tepper, Steven Cohen, Dan Loeb, Al Pacino, Tony Blair, and Kevin Spacey, to name just a few. The main conference takes place in Las Vegas each May and has been dubbed "the super bowl of hedge fund conferences."

SALT Asia launched in 2012, and was supposed to take place in late-October of this year. Organizers postponed the event in August, however, saying that the late-October dates conflicted with a local holiday.

But multiple sources with knowledge of the situation said that SALT Asia is likely more than just postponed. Rather, these sources said rumors are swirling in the hedge fund industry that the conference has been cancelled outright this year due to a lack of interest. Further, these sources said low attendance has plagued SALT Asia over its two-year history, and that the holiday excuse for postponement was merely a cover story.

Skybridge has not given a new date for SALT Asia or provided a prospective agenda to likely attendees of as Wednesday morning. The SALT Asia website now redirects to information about the 2013 event. Multiple requests for comment to Skybridge internal and external representatives were not returned.

A hint to Skybridge's possible disenchantment with this year's Asia event arose back in March, when speculation emerged that the hedge fund, which has $11.4 billion in assets under management, was looking to exit Singapore.

Scaramucci himself has been in the news recently. He left his longtime perch at CNBC, the dominant TV network for business news, for a position at Fox Business, which has struggled to connect with viewers since launching in 2007. Scaramucci is also attempting to relaunch the TV "Wall Street Week", which he bought the rights to earlier this year.

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