Latest Top 10 Hedge Fund List Reveals Citadel as the New #1

Date: Friday, March 22, 2013
Author: HedgeTracker

The latest edition of HedgeTracker’s Top Hedge Funds list reveals Citadel Investment Group to have the highest US equity assets under management as of the fourth quarter of 2012. The top spot had previously been held by Renaissance Technologies Corporation who fell to number 2 on the list. Citadel’s US equity assets increased by more than $10 billion to $38.7 billion. The 37% increase Citadel achieved represents the largest increase on this quarter’s list.

Renaissance sat atop the Top Hedge Fund list for more than a year after taking over the position in the third quarter of 2011. Although Renaissance slipped one spot, its assets actually increased by $1.8 billion over the course of the last quarter.

The top 10 hedge funds continue to surge as total equity assets under management increased more than 8% to $225 billion. This remarkable jump comes off the heels of the 6.3% increase the Top 10 Hedge Funds achieved during the third quarter of 2012.

All but three hedge funds in the top 10 saw assets increase over the fourth quarter of 2012. Adage Capital Partners and D.E. Shaw & Co each suffered marginal declines in assets but both retained their positions from the previous quarter of 4 and 5, respectively. Lone Pine Capital’s assets decreased by almost half a billion as the fund fell from 6 to 8 on the top 10 hedge fund list.
 

Paulson & Co, the owner of the top spot prior to Renaissance, re-entered the top 10 after being 11th for the third quarter of 2012. Paulson inherited the 7th spot on the list after assets increased by $3.5 billion to $16.2 billion. Millennium fell one spot to slip out of the top 10 – even after assets increased by $500 million.

AQR Capital Management LLC and SAC Capital Advisors both achieved asset increases of more than $1 billion for the fourth quarter.