* Gottex assets under management fall 1.2 percent to $8 bln
* Says investors return to hedge funds, pick up to continue (Adds details, background)
ZURICH, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Gottex Fund Management Holdings saw the decline in its assets under management coming to a near standstill in the third quarter and struck a note of optimism as investors put money in hedge funds again.
Gottex's assets under management dipped by 1.2 percent in the third quarter compared to the second, to $8 billion. The fund manger's assets have almost halved since mid-2008 after a deluge of redemptions towards the end of 2008.
Client withdrawals had accelerated after an investigation began into an allegedly fraudulent $3 billion investment scheme run by Minneapolis entrepreneur Tom Petters, to which the company was highly exposed.
Gottex shares collapsed, losing 96 percent of their value in 2008, though they have nearly quadrupled this year to close at 10.30 Swiss francs on Tuesday.
Guernsey-based Gottex said on Wednesday that demand from institutional investors was increasing again.
"The hedge fund sector has continued to post positive performance during the quarter," Gottex Chairman and CEO Joachim Gottschalk said in a trading statement.
"Institutions have returned to making allocations to the hedge fund industry and we believe this movement will pick up more momentum in the coming period," the Switzerland-listed group said in the statement.
Gottex's total fee-earning assets, which include assets under management and its managed account platform GSS, rose 1 percent to $8.23 billion at 30 September 2009, the group said. (Reporting by Sven Egenter; Editing by Rupert Winchester)