If – as they say – the night is darkest before the dawn, then the results of the latest EuroHedge half-year new fund survey should indicate that the European hedge fund industry’s post-crisis new-launch trough must be somewhere near its bottom.
The first-half 2012 survey by the EuroHedge data and research team presents a stark picture of a new-fund-launching environment in Europe beset by market volatility, by regulatory uncertainty, by investor caution and by escalating business start-up costs.
More than anything, though, the start-up environment remains plagued by the ever-present and all-encompassing Eurozone political and financial crisis that has cast such a pall across the region’s entire business and investment climate.
The H1 2012 survey shows that only 37 new offshore European hedge funds were confirmed as having launched in the first six months of the year – the lowest first-half total since EuroHedge began surveying the new fund market...