Hedge funds managed by Shumway Capital Partners L.L.C. and Pequot Capital Management Inc. were among the top performing in the world last year, a new report indicates.
Hedge funds had a 10.4 percent gain on average last year, according to figures published by Reuters based on data from Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc., including a 0.7 percent return in December.
An index tracked by Greenwich Alternative Investments L.L.C. produced an 11.5 percent return for the year and said it was the industry”™s best performance against the S&P 500 since 2002.
Greenwich-based Shumway Capital reportedly achieved a 51 percent return on its SCP Ocean Fund. The company was founded in 2003 by Chris Shumway, one of several Tiger Cub veterans of the legendary New York City hedge fund Tiger Management L.L.C. to have produced strong returns last year.
At last report, Shumway Capital had more than a third of its capital tied up in four companies: Qualcomm Inc., EMC Corp., Medtronic Inc. and Apple Inc.
In Westport, Arthur Sandberg”™s Pequot Capital achieved a 35 percent gain with its stock funds.
In Fairfield County, thousands of people are employed by hedge funds, which are lightly regulated investment vehicles that use alternative methods in hopes of generating bigger returns than standard investments. As of November, local hedge fund employment was up 9 percent over a year ago, according to calculations by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Worldwide, $21.8 billion in investment assets flowed into hedge funds in November, according to several reports citing data from TrimTabs Investment Research and Barclay Hedge. The researchers indicated that emerging markets funds generated the heaviest activity with $5.7 billion; the lone vehicles to suffer a net outflow in the aggregate were merger arbitrage funds, marking the second month straight the category has seen a decline.
“Capital is still flowing in,” said Michael Carter, managing director of Southport-based Carter Morse & Mathias Co., speaking at a January gathering of the Connecticut chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. “They are still very much part of the landscape and still growing.”
Jim Fagan, senior vice president of Cushman & Wakefield, said hedge funds continue to show signs of needing space to accommodate new hires.
