Niki Natarajan, editor, InvestHedge
The global fund of hedge funds industry, as represented by the largest players with more than $1 billion in assets, turned a corner in 2010. Despite returns of only 4.54% and what is still a hostile asset-raising environment, the 109 funds of hedge funds with more than $1 billion in assets grew by 4.82%, confirming that the haemorrhaging of assets has finally stopped. This turnaround happened in the second half of 2010 because in the first few months of the year this group was still collectively seeing outflows of capital.
But, having gained a total of $29 billion in new assets in the second half, the InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club – the baro¬meter for global funds of hedge funds – has proved that the industry is finally ready to move...