European hedge fund assets began to move decisively north again in the second half of 2010 as accelerating inflows and generally decent performance combined to fuel the industry’s increasingly robust recovery from its earlier deep downturn in 2008 and 2009.
The annual end-of-year survey by the EuroHedge data and research team shows that total assets in the European hedge fund industry have rebounded to $423 billion by the end of 2010, compared with a figure of $382 billion at the end of 2009.
Virtually all of that 11% gain came in the second half of the year, given that the EuroHedge half-year survey carried out at the end of June 2010 had revealed no increase in overall European assets over the first half of the year – with assets still standing at $382 billion at the mid-year stage.
Part of the overall increase on the year resulted from the industry’s...