Acute macro-economic and political uncertainty, wildly volatile financial markets and a fast-darkening overall business environment in Europe in the latter part of the year all combined to create a dismal overall climate for launching new European hedge funds in 2011, with the numbers of new start-ups hitting their lowest levels since 2002.
That is the finding of the latest annual new fund survey conducted by the EuroHedge data and research team – which found that just 116 new European hedge funds launched in 2011, raising combined assets of some $11.17 billion.
At those levels, the pace of new industry launches in Europe is roughly back to the same stage as it was in its formative stages back in 2002 – when less than 100 new funds launched in the year, raising assets of below $10 billion.
It marks a continued massive reduction in activity from the peak years of 2006 and...