The European hedge fund industry continued to shrink in the first half of 2009, with overall assets under management in European hedge funds falling by some 12% from $398 billion at the start of the year to just over $350 billion at the end of June.
That is the key finding of the latest mid-year industry survey conducted by the EuroHedge data and research team - which shows that, despite generally positive performance in the first half year, European hedge funds continued to experience withdrawals from investors.
To the end of June this year, the EuroHedge Composite index was showing a return of 3.74% on a median average basis - and a return of just over 6% on a mean average basis.
So, with hedge funds generally making positive returns in the first half of the year, all of this year's continued contraction is as a result of investor redemptions -...