As popularity of golf wanes, fund managers bet on cycling

These days, you're more likely to hear business deals discussed over the handlebars of a high-end bicycle than on the fairway, and fund managers are catching on. As cycling becomes the hobby of choice among wealthy professionals, portfolio managers from firms such as Wasatch , Vanguard and Franklin Templeton have been moving into the shares of companies behind bicycle and bike-component brands such as Cannondale, Specialized, and Trek, whose highest-price models can cost more than $10,000 (6,491 pounds). Fund ownership of Taiwan-based Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd , which produces its own Giant brand of bicycles and makes products for Trek and other high-end brands, leapt 10 percent last quarter, according to Morningstar data. For Taiwan-based Merida Industry Co Ltd , which makes the Specialized line, fund ownership jumped 11 percent in the quarter, while for Dorel Industries Inc , the Canadian conglomerate behind Cannondale, it grew 6 percent.
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