Paulson & Co. win Management Firm of the Year

Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Author: Walek & Associates

Paulson & Co. won Management Firm of the Year
at last night's 2009 Absolute Return Awards Dinner for the third consecutive
year. Paulson was nominated for five awards this year. SAC Capital
International won the prestigious award for Long-Term Performance, measured
over a 10-year period.

Fourteen other awards were presented at the fifth annual event which
recognizes the best risk-adjusted performance by hedge funds in the
Americas. Waterstone Market Neutral won Fund of the Year award, while Nisswa
Fixed Income -- the only fund to win multiple awards -- took home the Fixed
Income and Mortgage Backed, and New Fund of the Year awards.

FrontPoint Financial Horizons won the award for Specialist Equity, and
Brazill-based HG Green topped the Emerging Market Equity category for the
second time. Hudson Bay took home the Multistrategy honors while Alden
Global Distressed Opportunities won for Distressed Securities, and King
Street Capital won for Event Driven investing. Other winners included
Carlson Black Diamond Relative Value for Global Equity and MKP Opportunity
for Global Macro.

"Congratulations to all the winners and nominees in what was one of the
closest competitions since we started the awards five years ago," said
Michelle Celarier, Editor of AR. "They have excelled by taking advantage of
opportunities following the severe market dislocations in 2008 and the
industry has proven yet again the ability to produce alpha and an
uncorrelated return stream."

This year's full list of winners is as follows:


FUND OF THE YEAR

Waterstone Market Neutral


LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE

SAC Capital International


MANAGEMENT FIRM OF THE YEAR

Paulson & Co.


NEW FUND OF THE YEAR

Nisswa Fixed Income


MULTISTRATEGY

Hudson Bay


U.S. EQUITY

Stelliam


GLOBAL EQUITY

Carlson Black Diamond Relative Value


EMERGING MARKET EQUITY

HG Green


EVENT DRIVEN

King Street Capital


ARBITRAGE & CONVERTIBLES

Castle Creek Arbitrage


FIXED INCOME & MORTGAGE BACKED

Nisswa Fixed Income


HIGH YIELD & EMERGING MARKET DEBT

BlueMountain Credit Alternatives


DISTRESSED SECURITIES

Alden Global Distressed Opportunities


GLOBAL MACRO

MKP Opportunity


MANAGED FUTURES

Hyman Beck Global Portfolio


SPECIALIST EQUITY

FrontPoint Financial Horizons



Absolute Return employs a quantitative methodology for selecting nominees
and winners. In order for funds to be considered, they must not only
produce strong returns - at least beating the median in the relevant peer
group - but also must demonstrate that they can manage market volatility by
generating a strong Sharpe ratio. The Fund of the Year nominees are
considered from among the funds that won awards in the various other
categories and funds with outstanding performance but which had missed out
in their category by falling just short of the 25% Sharpe range.