The 13th edition of the eVestment hedge fund administrator survey has shown strong growth of assets under administration (AUA) in the first half of 2013.
Average growth for the period was 14.5 percent while median AUA growth was 12.74 percent. Total alternative investment AUA was $5.9 trillion at the end of Q2 2013.
“Administrators have grown to become an integral part of the alternatives industry. The rise of regulations globally, and subsequent reporting requirements, have forced hedge funds to lean on their administrative partners more and more each survey period,” said Peter Laurelli, vice president and head of industry research, eVestment.
“eVestment is in a privileged position to provide intelligence on this evolving industry and we appreciate the additional transparency that the hedge fund administrator community has provided to us by way of this periodic survey.”
The survey found that firms reported $3.41 trillion in single manager hedge fund assets under administration. State Street, Citco and BNY Mellon lead the industry with a combined $1.66 trillion in hedge fund AUA, while the top five firms reported $2.29 trillion in hedge fund AUA.
Fund of hedge funds totaled $812.5 billion across 33 participating administrations firms and 4,036 funds. This compares to reported end-of-year 2012 AUA of $789.6 billion for the same 33 firms.
Although fund of hedge funds AUA growth was positive, underperformance relative to hedge fund AUA growth suggests continued weakness within the fund of hedge funds space.
“eVestment continued to see net investor redemptions for commingled funds of hedge funds. Six months into 2012, we estimated funds of hedge funds allocations accounted for 35.09 percent of single manager hedge fund assets. That figure dropped to 33.86 percent as of end of year 2012 and 32.67 percent after the first half of 2013,” Laurelli added.
The survey showed that fund of hedge fund AUA in Europe declined 4.01 percent from $194.15 billion to $186.36 billion—following the trend in all regions except Asia where fund of hedge fund AUA increased.
Europe based hedge fund AUA was the quickest growing based on regional classifications, increasing from $537.19 billion to $606.95 billion, or 12.99 percent.
