Hedge fund assets up estimated $60 billion in 2003

Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Hedge funds gained record net assets of about $60 billion in 2003, helped by institutional investors cashing in some gains from rising markets and diversifying their portfolios, according to new research. The estimated $60 billion inflow was almost four times as much as the $16.3 billion in net assets that hedge funds gained in 2002, said TASS…TASS estimates that total assets in the hedge fund industry worldwide are now between $725 billion and $750 billion. TASS estimates there are currently 6,700 hedge funds globally, 1,700 of which are "funds of hedge funds." That's up from last year's TASS estimate of between 5,000 and 6,000 hedge funds, of which 1,250 were funds of hedge funds.