Top Mid-Sized Hedge Funds hold their ground, Oversee $50 Billion

Date: Monday, February 13, 2012
Author: HedgeTracker

The Top 100 Mid-Sized U.S. Equity Hedge Funds oversee $50 billion in assets, according to a recent report that was released by HedgeTracker. The top 100 list is led by multi-strategy hedge fund MSD Capital, long/short equity manager Contour Asset Management and commodities focused Astenbeck Capital Management.

MSD Capital, which is run by Glenn Fuhrman and John Phelan, was founded in 1998 to manage the wealth of Dell Computer founder Michael S. Dell and his family. More recently, MSD Capital began managing hedge fund strategies for external investors. Similarly, Andrew Hall’s Astenbeck Capital sprouted out from Phibro LLC, which used to only manage internal assets for Citigroup. After Phibro was sold to Occidental Petroleum, Hall created Astenback Capital in 2010 to offer the firm’s strategies to external investors.

Mid-Sized Hedge Funds are somewhat advantaged against their larger peers, since their smaller assets bases often require fewer and smaller investment bets to outperform. One of the top performers on the list includes Jonathan Hiscock’s and David Khabie-Zeitoune’s GSA Capital Partners, which returned 12.1% in 2010 and 13% in 2011 through October. Another top performer form the list is Christopher Lord’s technology focused Criterion Capital Management, which returned 15.9% in 2010 and 10.2% in 2011 through October. Criterion is not the only sector focused hedge fund on the list; in fact a record 14 sector focused funds made the most recent ranking.

Not surprisingly, the top investment strategy for funds on the list is Long/Short Equity, which is employed by 34 hedge funds that manage more than $17 billion in assets. Notably, 11 of the long/short hedge funds are global investors. Additionally, a total of 12 Deep Value and Distressed focused hedge funds made the top 100 Mid-Sized fund list, overseeing nearly $6 billion in assets.

Ranking Methodology:
The top 100 Mid-Sized Hedge Fund rankings are compiled on a quarterly basis using hedge fund firms’ overall U.S. equity assets under management. The list includes the top hedge funds with less than $650 million in U.S. equity assets. To view the Top 100 Hedge Fund list in its entirety, please click here.