Top 20 UK Hedge Funds - 2014

Top 20 Hedge Funds in the United Kingdom (UK) - 2014

Below is a list of the largest hedge funds in the UK for 2014, ranked by their assets under management (AUM):

Fund Name	City	Country	AUM ($USD)
Man Group	London	UK	38.11B
Brevan Howard	London	UK	28.56B
Blackrock	London	UK	21.46B
Lansdowne Partners	London	UK	17.39B
Arrowgrass Capital Partners	London	UK	10.36B
Capula	London	UK	10.21B
Winton Capital Management	London	UK	9.78B
Egerton	London	UK	7.92B
Cantab Capital Partners	London	UK	7.47B
Polygon Investment Group	London	UK	5.18B
The Childrens' Investment Fund	London	UK	5.18B
Cheyne Capital	London	UK	4.81B
Henderson Investment Advisors	London	UK	4.44B
Pamplona Capital Management	London	UK	4.44B
Marshall Wace	London	UK	3.92B
Aspect Capital	London	UK	3.48B
Pharo Management	London	UK	3.03B
Finisterre Capital	London	UK	3.03B
AKO Capital	London	UK	2.96B
Spinnaker Capital	London	UK	2.52B

View More of the Top UK Hedge Funds

• All of the 20 biggest hedge funds in the UK are based in London. 

• The 20 largest UK funds manage almost $190 billion in assets. 

• The largest hedge fund in the UK Is Man Group, followed by Brevan Howard and Blackrock. 

• Lansdowne Partners is the 4th largest UK hedge fund.

Download a list of more than 325 hedge funds in the UK

Largest Hedge Funds Control Only 1% of Market?

Do Hedge Funds Only Control Small Portion of Market?
It is a common perception that major hedge funds control much if not most of the equity and commodity markets. This is not an unreasonable belief considering hedge funds in the US control over $1 trillion in assets. Citadel Investment Group, one of the US' largest funds, is said to account for almost 3% of US trading volume.

Well, on Tuesday Feb. 23, the U.K. Financial Services Authority found that 50 of the U.K.'s largest hedge funds control less than 1% of the European stock market. The 50 firms in that survey manage about $300 billion USD in assets. They also concluded that no individual hedge fund posed any systemic risk.

According to the WSJ, the study looked at all assets of these funds including their long and short positions as well as derivatives.

There are some flaws with the above conclusions though. Conspicuously absent is a report on hedge funds' total share of market activity as opposed to simply their holdings. It is also unclear from the WSJ article how the derivative values were calculated and whether short positions were netted against long positions or added.

Still it is interesting that based on UK regulators' statements, they see even large hedge funds as posing little risk to the system.

European Union Imposes Hedge Fund Regulations

EU Imposes New Hedge Fund Regulations
The European Union is proposing new rules extending oversight for the European hedge fund industry which has close to $1 trillion in assets by some estimates. The European Commission Wednesday proposed new disclosure requirements for hedge funds and private equity firms managing more than EUR100 million in assets. Many had expected, upon release of an early draft, that the AUM cutoff for firms would be as high as EUR250 million. This cutoff means only 3% of funds (accounting for 10% of assets), will be regulated under the proposal.

Germany and France in recent years have railed against hedge funds while the U.K., home to Europe's largest financial center has taken the opposite position. Germany and France, for example, believe certain derivatives and other aspects of financial markets have evolved to become beyond regulators' understanding and oversight. The U.K. for their part, believes stricter regulations will only push hedge funds and other alternative managers to locales with less stringent requirements.

Under the plan, firms exceeding the cutoff will have to register with regulators and provide information on their holdings, fees and the amount of money they borrow to boost their potential returns.

The commission's proposal still needs approval from E.U. governments and the European Parliament. Officials expect continued argument about how to manage the sector.

Gordon Brown Speaks of Cracking Down on "Shadow Banking System"

Britain's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, spoke yesterday of massive changes to the oversight of the "shadow banking system," including hedge funds and investment banks. Brown noted that financial institutions of all sorts should be regulated based on what they do, rather than how they classify themselves.

Hedge fund regulation will likely be a heavily debated subject at the G20 meeting beginning April 2. G20 finance ministers, meeting in Sussex, agreed that hedge funds and their managers should be registered and “disclose appropriate information to assess the risks they pose”.

EU Official Seeks Greater Hedge Fund Transparency

The top EU financial official, Charlie McCreevey, is seeking greater transparency from European hedge funds, amid pressure from politicians and citizens. This comes amid increased calls for hedge fund transparency in the US. McCreevey said noted "undesirable levels of leverage in hedge funds, or excessive lending to private equity managed companies."

He also acknowledged the role of leverage in today's markets with redemptions forcing many funds to sell positions, "Much of the present difficulty encountered by hedge funds and private equity portfolio companies stems from the sudden tightening in cash and securities lending,"

"Those who do not like activist investors should not have a fixation with hedge funds," McCreevy said. "Any policy responses that seek to tackle wider problems by targeting hedge funds and private equity will fail."

European nations will likely discuss this with the U.S., China, India and Brazil when the G-20 group of nations meet in April to chart out ways to fix the financial system.

Read the full article

EU to Take Steps to Regulate Hedge Funds

EU Hedge Fund Regulation:
The EU plans to take steps to increase regulation and governance of hedge funds the EU's financial chief , Charlie McCreevey disclosed on Monday. He proposed that officials consider the risks hedge funds pose to the markets under current regulations as well as discuss methods for defining hedge funds and other oversight. McCreevey also explicitly noted he is not interested in a short selling ban.


Read the full story:

GLG Freezing Asets in Long-Short Hedge Fund

European hedge fund GLG partners, is limiting client withdrawals to its $2.9 billion GLG European Long-Short Fund. The fund claims this is to prevent selling assets at depressed prices. This action, or inaction, comes after GLG took similar steps with its emerging markets fund earlier this year. GLG manages $19 billion.

Read the full hedge fund article

Top Performing European Equity Hedge Funds

Top performing European Equity Hedge Funds for the quarter ending Dec 2007

Europe equity

O.E.I. MAC (US$)

Threadneedle UK Crescendo USD

Odey European GBP

Odey European Euro

Lansdowne UK Equity Fund GBP

Cazenove European Equity Abs. Rtn. GBP

Polar Capital Paragon Fund USD

Cazenove Leveraged UK Equity Abs. Rtn. GBP

AlphaGen Altai Fund (Class A)

Cazenove Leveraged U.K. Equity Abs. Rtn. USD

Polaris Prime Europe

NewSmith U.K. Hedge Fund GBP

Cazenove Leveraged U.K. Equity Abs. Rtn. EUR

NewSmith U.K. Hedge Fund USD

Ecofin Special Situations Utilities Fund

Polaris Prime Europe USD

Libra Europe Fund

Exane Vauban Fund

GLC Gestalt Europe Fund $