Boutiques lead winners at 2007 InvestHedge Awards


Date: Friday, March 14, 2008
Author: Hedge Fund Intelligence

More than 400 of the leading players in the global fund

Press Release: Boutiques lead winners at 2007 InvestHedge Awards

14 March 2008

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Once again emerging managers returned more than the Global Multi-Strategy Composite,

proving that younger managers do still tend to add value. This year for the first time after

five years of successive nominations and only ever narrowly missing out, Protégé Partners

in New York took home the Emerging Managers Award.

This year’s two new awards took into account the funds of funds’ industry’s growing

sophistication and asset flows from institutional investors. More than half of the European

Equity nominees actually had other strategies in the portfolio, leading to the creation of a

separate European Multi-Strategy Award, won this year by RBS Asset Management’s

Orbita European Growth Strategy, which had also been nominated for the past four years.

Archstone took home the first ever Long Term Performance Award for Global Multi-

Strategy Funds with more than $1 billion in assets and a 10-year track record. The New

York-based firm, which has more than $4.5 billion under management, has had 13

nominations over the years in a number of categories, and has won four InvestHedge

Awards at in the past.

Persistent Edge Management won the Asian Strategies Award for the second year running,

while Lyrical Partners in New York, took home the accolade for US Strategies also for the

second year in a row. Berens Capital Management scored a hat-trick,

taking home the Global Equity Award for its Berens Global Value Fund for the third

consecutive year.

Permal, which has had 18 nominations over the years and won two previous awards, took

home the Commodities & Natural Resources Award for its Permal Multi-Manager Natural

Resources Fund.

Blackstone Alternative Asset Management took home Institutional Firm of the Year for a

second time. The New York-based firm won that award in 2002, as well as racking up a

total of 19 nominations over the years, including a record breaking eight last night.

The complete list of winners by category:

US Strategies

Lyrical Multi-Manager Fund

Asian Strategies

Persistent Edge Asia Partners

Emerging Markets

H21 BRIC Plus

Global Equity

Berens Global Value Fund

Global Multi-Strategy Fund ($100m - $500m)

The Merriwell Fund Limited Partnership

Global Multi-Strategy Fund (over $500m)

Thames River Warrior

European Equity

RMF Long/Short Equity Europe

European Multi-Strategy

Orbita European Growth Strategy

Press Release: Boutiques lead winners at 2007 InvestHedge Awards

14 March 2008

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Arbitrage

SSARIS Relative Value Strategy

Event Driven & Distressed

GEMS Recovery Portfolio

Global Macro

Trading Capital Holdings

Commodities & Natural Resources

Permal Multi-Manager Natural Resources Fund

Fixed Income & Credit

Mont Blanc Fixed Income Fund

Asset Based Lending & Finance

Mont Blanc Select

Emerging Managers

Protégé Partners

10-Year Performance Awards

Archstone Partners

Group of the Year

The Capital Holdings Funds/LCF Rothschild Group

Institutional Firm of the Year

Blackstone Alternative Asset Management

New Fund of the Year

H21 BRIC Plus

Fund of the Year

GEMS Recovery Portfolio

Background & decision criteria

The event, which was held at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan, recognised outstanding

performance in the funds of funds industry based primarily on the Sharpe ratio, a measure of

returns above the risk-free rate divided by standard deviation. Apart from New Fund of the

Year, the minimum asset size to qualify was $100 million. Nominees also had to beat their

peer group median return in order to qualify.

The Sharpe ratio for the calendar year was used to select the shortlist in each of the main

categories; thereafter, the fund with the best return won – providing its Sharpe was also within

25% of the fund with the best Sharpe ratio in the category. Prizes thus went to the funds that,

by our methodology, displayed the best risk-adjusted returns for the year.

The reason for the two-tiered Sharpe ratio and return as the deciding criteria is that it is

designed to reflect what investors are looking for – namely strong risk-adjusted returns, but

also ultimately strong performance.

For some of the award categories, the Sharpe ratio alone was not an appropriate screen. For

example, with more than 480 management groups now in the InvestHedge fund of funds

Press Release: Boutiques lead winners at 2007 InvestHedge Awards

14 March 2008

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universe, to qualify for Group of the Year we stipulated that nominees needed to have either at

least $10 billion in discretionary assets in funds of funds and at least one nomination for the

various other award categories – or at least three nominations and at least $3 billion in assets.

The Group of the Year nominations were decided by various quantitative factors – including the

weighted average Sharpe ratio across the firm’s product range, out-performance of the

InvestHedge medians (weighted by assets), as well as growth of assets under management

both by absolute amount and in percentage terms.

Institutional Firm of the Year is the only award based on asset growth rather than

performance. For this, the number of mandates won as recorded by InvestHedge over the past

year, combined with asset growth, both in absolute and percentage terms as measured in the

InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club, were among the factors taken into account. Nominees also

needed to have more than 80% of their assets coming from the institutional market.

To qualify, funds must provide their data to InvestHedge, which has the largest funds of funds

database and a team of data analysts that compile the performance numbers and indices for

the global funds of funds industry each month.

For more information, please visit the InvestHedge website at

www.investhedge.com

~ Ends ~

Notes:

About

InvestHedge and HedgeFund Intelligence

InvestHedge, which is published by HedgeFund Intelligence, the leading provider of news,

analysis and performance data on the global hedge fund industry, focuses on investors in

hedge funds, including the entire global funds of funds industry. HedgeFund Intelligence

provides dedicated information on European, Asian and US single managers and on hedge fund

investors.

For more information contact:

Niki Natarajan,

Tel: + 44 (0) 207 779 7360

InvestHedge Editor

nnatarajan@hedgefundintelligence.com

Susan Barreto,

Tel: +1 773 463 4317

InvestHedge Deputy Editor

sbarreto@hedgefundintelligence.com

Neil Wilson, Editorial Director, HedgeFund Intelligence

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7779 7359

nwilson@hedgefundintelligence.com

Paul Farrow / Abbie Thomas, Merlin PR

Tel: +44 (0) 207 653 6620

pfarrow@merlinpr.com

/ athomas@merlinpr.com

Armel Leslie, Walek & Associates

Tel: + 212 590 0530

aleslie@walek.com

of hedge funds industry came together last night at the Pierre Hotel in New York for the

sixth annual InvestHedge Funds of Hedge Funds Awards for the best risk adjusted

performance among the global funds of hedge funds universe.

The GEMS group, founded in 1987, walked away with two awards, including the

prestigious Fund of the Year prize, the nominees for which were unveiled at the Award

ceremony in New York on 13 March. GEMS, which has $5 billion under management, also

won the Event Driven & Distressed category.

Sixteen groups took home 20 awards, with four funds of hedge funds each picking up two

accolades. Ten of the 16 firms could be considered boutiques as defined by size of firm

and investment philosophies. This year’s winners were split evenly between US-based

firms and European companies.

Peak Partners in Geneva walked away with the Fixed Income & Credit and Asset Based

Lending & Finance awards, while The Capital Holding Funds/LCF Rothschild Group

collectively took home Group of the Year, as well as the Global Macro Award for LCF

Rothschild Group’s Trading Capital Holdings.

Newcomer Horizon21 Alternative Investments, founded by Rainer-Marc Frey, founder of

RMF, now owned by the Man Group, also won two awards. H21 BRIC Plus won the

Emerging Markets category and New Fund of the Year. While Frey’s former firm RMF

Investments won the European Equity category.

Among this year’s winners were many new names including State Street’s SSARIS

Relative Value Strategy that won the Arbitrage Award, FutureSelect Portfolio

Management’s The Merriwell Fund Limited Partnership, winner of Global Multi-Strategy

<$500 million, while Thames River Capital’s Thames River Warrior Fund took home the

award for Global Multi-Strategy with assets >$500 million.