Hedge Fund Survey

The FCA’s latest Hedge Fund Survey has been published (the data reported is as at September 2014).

Whilst the FCA applies certain filters in its selection of firms e.g. multimanager funds are excluded etc. completion of the survey is voluntary.

The survey took in 52 firms which collectively manage US$623bn globally, although only US$418.6bn is captured by the survey. Whilst none of the 132 funds surveyed are domiciled in the UK, some US$265bn of the figure quoted is managed out of the UK.

Although Annex IV AIFMD reporting is now providing the FCA with useful information, only 31% (1,330) of AIFs categorised themselves as ‘hedge funds’.  We are informed that only two of the top ten funds by NAV in the Hedge Fund Survey provided the same detailed information under the AIFMD and so the FCA anticipates a continued need to capture information from the largest funds in a smaller, more targeted, survey in the future.  Interesting statistics include:

• Hedge funds constituted the third largest alternative investment, behind ‘real estate’ and ‘private equity’
• The 10 largest firms control 38% of the sample’s net AuM
• Only 10 funds are responsible for 91% of repo borrowing and 95% of counterparty risk to banks
• The Cayman Islands remains the largest domicile of funds (69%), with Ireland in second place with a 10% share
• Institutional investors are the largest segment of investors (43%) with funds of funds having fallen to 20%