The hedge fund industry’s assets under management rose to $3.08 trillion (€2.91 trillion) in February, according to data firm eVestment.
Following redemptions at the end of 2014 and weak flows in January, hedge fund assets picked up in February, increasing 2% as investors added $13 billion in new assets and performance gains brought in a further $48 billion.
For the second consecutive month, managed futures strategies saw increasing interest from investors, with inflows of $3.6 billion in new assets. This brings the year-to-date total of new assets in managed futures funds to $6.3 billion.
Multi-strategy funds also had a positive month, with an additional $3.1 billion in February, and year-to-date asset flows of $7.4 billion. eVestment expects this category to experience increasing inflows in 2015.
Event-driven funds saw smaller inflows of $2.6 billion in February, with activist hedge funds accounting for nearly all of the strategy’s inflows during the month.
Long/short equity strategies saw new allocations of around $790 million in February, but year-to-date net flows for the asset class remained negative, with $6.9 billion of redemptions as a result of outflows in January.
Emerging market strategies had outflows again in February, following a bad month in January and marking the eighth consecutive month of negative investor sentiment towards emerging market hedge funds. eVestment says redemption pressures are not focused in any one country, indicating a general lack of demand for the group in the current environment.
©2015 funds europe
