Top 100 hedge funds have 75% of industry assets

The largest 100 hedge funds have $1.3 trillion (€856.4bn) in assets under management, a 35% increase over 2007, according to Alpha magazine’s Hedge Fund 100 report.

JP Morgan Asset Management topped the list with $44.7bn in assets, boosted by Highbridge Capital. The 10 largest hedge funds had assets of $324bn, a 29% increase over last year.

There were some dramatic shifts in the rankings over the previous year.

Paulson & Co rocketed to number eight in the list from 69 last year, with nearly $29bn in assets under management. The fund was boosted by its positions against the sub-prime mortgage market.

Harbert Management, a hedge fund with investments across real estate, private equity, convertible arbitrage and distressed debt and special situations. Its assets have increased from $1.5bn in 2002 to nearly $23bn as of March 1, according to its Web site. Its ranking rose sharply to 16 from 94 last year.

The asset growth reflects the growing number of institutional investors, particularly pension funds making allocations to hedge funds, either directly or through funds of hedge funds.

Separately, hedge fund industry assets declined 1.4% to $2.8 trillion in the first three months of the year, according to a report by hedge fund news service HedgeFundNet.

The decline followed substantial redemptions in the first quarter, following poor performance across the industry.

HedgeFundNet's estimate of total industry assets is relatively high compared with other assessments, which vary from from $1 trillion to $2 trillion.