Fewer hedge launches carry more assets

Thirty-five new hedge funds with a total of $19.5 billion in assets were launched in the Americas during the first six months of this year, according to a survey published by Absolute Return magazine. That handily tops the same period in 2007, when 72 funds were launched, with $14 billion in assets. This year, five funds were formed with at least $1 billion in assets, compared to three funds that managed to surpass the billion-dollar mark in last year's first half. Goldman Sachs Asset Management of New York made the biggest splash with the $7 billion Goldman Sachs Investment Partners Equity Long/Short Fund and the $1.1 billion Goldman Mortgage Credit Opportunities Fund. In other hedge fund news, four of the six hedge strategies covered by the Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes of New York posted net-of-fees losses in June 2008. Event-driven strategies had the worst month, posting a 2.8% decrease. Equity long/short and equity market neutral were the only strategies that posted gains in June, returning 0.53% and 1.9%, respectively.