JPMorgan Repeats as Biggest Hedge Fund Firm
Almost four years ago, the managers of Highbridge Capital Management, shrewdly sold 55 percent of the firm to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a move that is still paying off. Highbridge nearly doubled its capital in 2007, to $27.8 billion from $15.7 billion, and New York-based JPMorgan Asset Management overall holds its position atop the Alpha Hedge Fund 100 list, boosting its total firm capital to $44.7 billion as of December 31, from $33.1 billion a year earlier.
Two firms tie for second in the seventh annual Hedge Fund 100, each with $36 billion in capital: Westport, Connecticut-based Bridgewater Associates and San Francisco’s Farallon Capital Management. Bunched just behind them are Renaissance Technologies Corp. of East Setauket, New York, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group of New York and D.E. Shaw Group of New York, at $33.3 billion, $33.2 billion and $32.2 billion, respectively.
Climbing in aggregate to record heights, the world’s ten biggest hedge funds control $324 billion in capital, up 29 percent -- and more than the combined value of the Hedge Fund 100 firms at the end of 2001. Total assets under management for the top 100 is $1.33 trillion, a roughly 33 percent increase over last year. The Hedge Fund 100’s 74 percent share of all hedge fund assets is up by 5 percentage points.
