| 60 | Muzinich Credithedge Master Fund |
| This Muzinich high-yield corporate debt fund has an 11 year track record. It was up 15.8% in 2012 and 8.57% last year, and has started 2014 somewhat cautiously with some cash on the balance sheet through 11% in short positions. The UCITS version has around $600m in it, but what is striking is that the asset base of the offshore version has jumped by 30% in the first two months of the year. | |
| 59 | GAM Asia Equity Hedge |
| This GAM hedge fund run from Hong Kong by Michael Lai has a 13 year track record. Returns over the last 12 months have been the best in six years: the fund is up 20%. The mandate is Asia ex-Japan, so it has not benefited from the impact of monetary push on Japanese equities. Across Lai’s long-only funds he does better versus his peers in up markets rather than in down markets, making current hedge fund performance intriguing. | |
| 58 | S. W. Mitchell Capital |
| Stuart Mitchell’s firm runs both offshore and onshore hedge funds in the $1.6bn AUM. The Cayman Islands domiciled S. W. Mitchell European EUR was up 28.26% over the last 12 months and has a compound annualised return of 14.96% over 5 years. The onshore SWMC European is up over 30% in the same 12 months. So, unusually, the onshore fund has outperformed the offshore for the simple reason that the onshore fund has deliberately been run with less hedges (shorts). | |
| 57 | Officially Licensed HFs in China |
| China has granted six foreign hedge fund management companies quotas of $50m each to raise yuan in China and invest it abroad. The firms are the Man Group Plc, Winton Capital Management, Oaktree Capital Management, Citadel, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC and Canyon Partners. Each of the managers is thought to have experience managing money for Beijing through the CIC. The Shanghai regulator has allowed these hedge funds to market to the city’s high net worth investor community. With a $50m quota is that a limit of one billionaire each then? | |
| 56 | Visium Asset Management |
| Lesley Kelly, the Head of Trading at Visium, is officially The Strongest Woman on Wall Street. The title came with victory in the RBC Decathlon in New York. Coincidentally the Strongest Man on Wall Street is also a hedgie – Jay Li works for Long/Short shop Trafelet Brokaw & Co. As Clinton Biondo of Fir Tree Partners was also the winner in the executive division, be wary of taking on a New York hedgie in competition in bench press, pull ups and dips – they could will outlast you. | |
| 55 | Apex Fund Services |
| Apex launched its three hour hedge fund net asset valuation (“NAV”) reporting service called Tzero this month, giving fund managers the world’s fastest portfolio valuation service. Tzero is capable of managing all ‘liquid and listed’ asset classes and will be accessible to Apex’s clients in any of its 34 global offices. | |
| 54 | Financial Diligence Network |
| A newly competitive business line is platforms for investors and hedge fund managers to engage with one another. If it can save the work of the 20 people at Brevan Howard filling in RFPs it works. Financial Diligence Network has the highest website ranking on Alexa.com, and the ranking has improved a lot in the last 3 months, showing good momentum. | |
| 53 | Marlin Fund |
| Mike Master’s Marlin Fund has had a good couple of years. This long biased equity fund was up 31.8% in 2012 and 77.5% in 2013. Assets in the fund tripled over those last two year to $473m at the end Dec 2013. However inflows have carried on this year, and Masters started March with $661m in the fund. | |
| 52 | Co-Investments By FoFs |
| As one of the initiatives to demonstrate engagement by funds of hedge funds there is a trend to offering co-investment opportunities to clients. These can be niche strategies or illiquid opportunities, sometimes referred to as private deals. | |
| 51 | CF Odey Absolute Return |
| It is very appropriate that a fund managed by Odey Asset Management is included for a UCITS product as the firm has for many years distributed funds via intermediaries, a method which is now seen as standard procedure for hedge fund groups looking to come onshore. Plus the firm has for nearly all its existence has put an emphasis on absolute return (calendar year positive return has been the preferred yardstick). The UCITS version of the flagship European equity hedge fund was up a stonking 45.59% in 2013, and up over 3% YTD. | |
| 50 | Symphony Financial Partners |
| Value investing in Japanese equities as an engaged shareholder is a tough strategy – ask Chris Hohn of TCI. But David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata have applied the strategy well over the last decade. In a tough environment they have made good returns, though inevitably investors have to ride out 3 and 4 months of consecutive losses periodically. The SFP Value Realization Fund has been up in each of the last 4 calendar years, including gains of 44.52% in 2012 and 82.15% last year. | |
| 49 | Citi Hedge Fund Services |
| Amongst the bulge bracket hedge fund administrators Citi had the highest growth rate in the most recent measurement period (2H 2013). Assets under administration grew 20% to $297.73bn. Citi service 1007 hedge funds, with an average fund size of $295m. | |
| 48 | New England Pension Consultants |
| NEPC are one of the dominant US institutional investment consultants when it comes to hedge fund investing. The firm has facilitated their clients executing some of the big current trends such as Direct Lending Strategies, disintermediation of funds of funds, and the bias to the big managers. NEPC’s clients have outperformed the national average in 24 out of the 27 years NEPC has been in business. NEPC’s clients have also shown significant outperformance on a risk-adjusted basis for the 3, 5, 7, and 10 year time frames. NEPC won the Consultant Category of the aiCIO Industry Innovation Awards three months ago. | |
| 47 | Balyasny Asset Management |
| Dmitry Balyasny’s firm became the first hedge fund group to advertise when it took a page in “Pension & Investments”. With the strapline “Performing In All conditions”, the ad consists of one large photo of people working their way up a snowy mountainside with the BAM logo across it – it is pure branding. The choice of medium is telling – directly to pension plans and their consultants. | |
| 46 | Ken Griffin |
| The founder of Citadel has made the largest recent charitable donation by a hedge fund manager. Griffin is giving $150m to Harvard, his alma mata. The money will largely go the college’s financial aid program, which enables less wealthy students to access the top-rated university. It was whilst at Harvard that Ken Griffin first traded convertibles, which soon became what he did for a living. | |
| 45 | Single Manager Multi-Strategy Funds |
| Multi-manager funds run by single manager hedge fund management companies vary a lot. The criteria for including an in-house fund will differ and the initial portfolio shape and rules for changing them are house specific. Brevan Howard Asset Management has the $5bn Brevan Howard Multi-Strategy Fund, which grew assets by 11.6% last year. But the epitome of this sort of fund in Europe is the one run by Brummer & Partners of Sweden. The $6.4 billion Brummer Multi-Strategy Fund has not had a down year since inception in 2002. Last year the fund was up 9.38%, and fund assets grew by 25%. | |
| 44 | Jabre Capital Partners |
| Jabre Capital Partners had a very good 2013. The Jabcap Global Convertible Fund was up 27.14% in 2013, the Jabcap Global Balanced Fund was up more than 47%, and the Jabcap Multi-Strategyreturned 43%. At the EuroHedge Awards Philippe Jabre’s firm quite rightly won the Management Firm of the Year award. For those old school investors in hedge funds that care more about absolute returns than about Sharpe ratios the Geneva-based Jabre Capital Partners must be high on any short list. | |
| 43 | Hildene Opportunities Master Fund |
| Distressed funds have done well since the Credit Crunch and funds that look at distressed structured credit like Hildene (investing in CDOs, CLOs, RMBS and other asset backed) has done better. Over the last three calendar years returns of the Hildene Opportunities Fund have been 13.27%, 45.45% and 35.18%. Last year assets in the fund grew by 53% taking the fund through a billion dollars AUM. In the first two months of 2014 the fund is up 13.88%. | |
| 42 | Two Sigma Compass Enhanced US Fund |
| Two Sigma’s managed futures fund targets 30% volatility, which is very high by CTA standards. But it has failed to meet the target, as monthly standard deviation of returns is only 5.7. But returns have been 30% p.a. (Compound Annual Returns of 29.14%). Management company Two Sigma confesses that this systematic fund does have human oversight, which may account for differential returns versus most systematic CTAs. Compass Enhanced US Fund was up 29.61% last year (when assets went up 63%, current AUM is $4.8bn) and is up 7.209% YTD. | |
| 41 | Cambridge Associates |
| The advisor to investors in hedge funds with the fastest recent growth is Cambridge Associates, according to InvestHedge data. Last year Cambridge Associates advised on $34.17bn of hedge fund assets, a growth over the previous year of 14.82%. | |
