U.S. Hosts 60% Of Top HFs

Barron’s magazine ranking of the world’s top performing hedge funds gives the U.S. a boost in its boast that it is the center of the HF world. In the ongoing battle for bragging rights, the U.S. is home to 30 – or 60%, of Barron’s Hedge Fund 50, while London lays claim to only 11 (22%) of the top performers. London does have a slight leg up in the quality of performance, however, as three of the top five are based there, with RAB Capital’s RAB Special Situations Fund returning +47.69% a year net of fees, for the three-year study period that ended June 30. Occupying the No. 2 spot are The Children’s Investment Fund with 44.27% and SR Phoenica at No. 5 with 43.10%. Sandwiched in between at No. 3 and 4 are, from the U.S., Highland Capital Management’s Highland CDO Opportunity Fund with 44.12% and BTR Global Opportunity Fund with 43.42%. Some of the more high-profile funds did okay in the tally –based on data gathered by BarclayHedge and Credit Agricole Structured Asset Management Advisers – but nowhere  near the top performers. For example, for the period in question, Pequot Capital, Greenlight Capital and GLG Partners exceeded 18% while Lone Pine Capital and Cerberus Capital gained slightly less than that a year over 36 months. One caveat regarding the listing: Some big names are conspicuously missing and may have ranked high were it not for the lack of reliable figures for the survey. These include Renaissance Technologies’ Renaissance Medallion Fund and ESL Investments’ ESL Partners, both with 35% or more annual returns. Also omitted were funds with less than $250 million in assets under management and new funds that may have had one or two good years as startups.