Hedge funds with $35 bln shut down in 2006

At least 83 U.S. hedge funds shut in 2006. The largest was the $9.1 billion multistrategy fund run by Amaranth Advisors LLC, which ranks as the biggest hedge fund collapse in history, Absolute Return said.

But Amaranth wasn't the only large, multistrategy hedge fund to shut last year.

Archeus Capital Management's Animi Master Fund, which oversaw $2.65 billion at its peak; another run by Sagamore Hill Capital, which once held about $2.6 billion; and Saranac Capital's Citigroup Multistrategy Arbitrage/Saranac Arbitrage fund, which topped out at $2.2 billion, also folded, Absolute Return reported.

Five other funds that once managed at least $1 billion also shut last year. That's a big change from 2005, when none of the hedge funds that folded ever had $1 billion in assets, Absolute Return noted.

Still, most of the hedge funds that shut down last year were small: Almost half of those funds never reached $50 million in assets. That suggests the $1.4 trillion industry is evolving into a business dominated by the bigger and bigger firms, Absolute Return said.