Hegde Funds getting richer

[italkcash]

During 2007 Hedge Funds grew their wealth by 27% to $2.6 trillion dollars due to the impact of the “credit crunch” on investor appetites in the second half of the year.

With hedge funds on average returning about 8% to investors, it is clear the majority of the increase in aggregate assets under management last year (more than two-thirds of it) was due to net inflows of new money from investors.

There are now more than 390 firms around the world in the Global Billion Dollar Club – managing hedge fund assets of $1 billion or more. The combined amount of assets that these firms now manage reached a collective $2.083 trillion by the end of 2007 – or close to 80% of the industry’s global aggregate.