Waves of institutional money are hitting the hedge fund market, and fund-of-hedge-funds managers are avidly shooting through the curls. Count Gottex Fund Management among them. The Lausanne, Switzerland-based firm, which launched a fund of hedge funds in 1999, caught the ride of its young life in 2003 — once it was able to post a three-year performance record. Thanks to strong institutional demand for hedge funds, a more-focused marketing effort and an annualized return since inception of 8.6 percent on the dollar class of the Gottex Market Neutral Fund, Gottex's multimanager hedge fund assets soared sixfold, to more than $3 billion, at the end of June from a year earlier. Gottex's 500 percent increase in assets in the 12 months ended June 30, makes it the fastest-growing member of the 2004 Fund of Funds 50, our third annual ranking of the biggest multimanager hedge fund families by assets under management. (Another firm grew faster, but as a subsidiary it derives its rank from its parent.) Most funds of funds posted impressive growth over the period. Altogether, the firms that make up this year's Fund of Funds 50 (originally published in Institutional Investors Alpha) ran a total of $358 billion at the end of June, up a stunning 70 percent from the $210 billion run by last year's top 50 managers.
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