GLG Partners and Vega Asset Management tie for top honors as Europe’s biggest hedge fund managers.
GLG and Vega each managed $11.1 billion as of September 30, 2004, according to the 2005 Europe Hedge Fund 25, Institutional Investor’s Alpha’s second annual ranking of Europe’s biggest single-manager hedge fund families by assets. GLG Partners and Vega Asset Management came in second and fourth, respectively, in the 2004 ranking.
Last year’s No. 1 manager, Man Investments, comes in third this year with $9.7 billion in capital. The assets managed by the members of the 2005 Europe Hedge Fund 25 totaled $120 billion as of September 30, 2004, an increase of more than 40 percent from the $83 billion managed by the largest European hedge funds the year before. Some of this growth comes from a weakened dollar, but the bulk stems from strong inflows of capital from wealthy individuals and, increasingly, institutional investors, much of whose money is being funneled in through funds of hedge funds.
Rounding out the top five of 2005’s rankings was Barclays Global Investors, with $7.940 billion and Brevan Howard Asset Management, with $7.381 billion.