Paulson & Co. won Management Firm of the Year at last nights 2009 Absolute Return Awards Dinner for the third consecutive year. Paulson was nominated for five awards this year. SAC Capital International won the prestigious award for Long-Term Performance, measured over a 10-year period.
Fourteen other awards were presented at the fifth annual event which recognizes the best risk-adjusted performance by hedge funds in the Americas. Waterstone Market Neutral won Fund of the Year award, while Nisswa Fixed Income — the only fund to win multiple awards — took home the Fixed Income and Mortgage Backed, and New Fund of the Year awards.
FrontPoint Financial Horizons won the award for Specialist Equity, and Brazill-based HG Green topped the Emerging Market Equity category for the second time. Hudson Bay took home the Multistrategy honors while Alden Global Distressed Opportunities won for Distressed Securities, and King Street Capital won for Event Driven investing. Other winners included Carlson Black Diamond Relative Value for Global Equity and MKP Opportunity for Global Macro.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees in what was one of the closest competitions since we started the awards five years ago, says Michelle Celarier, Editor of AR. They have excelled by taking advantage of opportunities following the severe market dislocations in 2008 and the industry has proven yet again the ability to produce alpha and an uncorrelated return stream.
Absolute Return employs a quantitative methodology for selecting nominees and winners. In order for funds to be considered, they must not only produce strong returns at least beating the median in the relevant peer group but also must demonstrate that they can manage market volatility by generating a strong Sharpe ratio. The Fund of the Year nominees are considered from among the funds that won awards in the various other categories and funds with outstanding performance but which had missed out in their category by falling just short of the 25% Sharpe range.
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